Intensive Summer Institute: Program Evaluation
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 345 509 FL 020 024 AUTHOR Ross, Steven TITLE Intensive Summer Institute: Program Evaluation. 1991. NFLRC Research Notes. INSTITUTION Hawaii Univ., Manoa. Second LaAguage Teaching and Curriculum Center. PUB DATE Jan 92 NOTE 184p. AVAILABLE FROM National Foreign Language Resource Center, University of Hawaii, Webster 203, 2528 The Mall, Honolulu, HI 96822 ($8.00). PUB TYPE Reports - Evaluative/Feasibility (142) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC08 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Chinese; Higher Education; Indonesian; *Inservice Teacher Education; *InEtitutes (Training Programs); Japanese; *Language Teachers; Master Teachers; *Peer Tea(lhing; Program Descriptions; Program Evaluation; Secondary Education; Second Language Instruction; Second Langrage Learning; Spanish; *Student Attitudes; Summer Programs; *Teacher Attitudes; Uncommonly Taught Languages IDENTIFIERS *UniveIsity of Hawaii ABSTRACT This report evaluates a 6-week intensive summel program for language teachers at the University of Hawaii. Thirty-two high school or college teachers and teacher trainees of Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, and Spanish participated. Participants were led by master teachers who provided exemplary teaching, organized language-specific activities, scheduled teaching practice sessions, directed materials preparation, and led group critAque sessions. Independent trained classroom observers provided objective information on program implementation. Each participant was required to maintain a journal on perceptions of the classroom process. The report includes an overview of the program and evaluation process; separate sections describing focused events and student responses to them; conclusions; and a brief list of references. Appended materials include transcripts of classroom observations for each language. Concluding remarks note the strengths of the program and areas for improvement. Strengths include the week devoted to orientation and trie participants' experiences in giving authentic lessons to peers. Weaknesses and areas identified for consideration in future program planning include increased emphasis on communinative methodology in the orientation, use of "real" students or avoidance of pair teaching, better-structured critiquing sessions, and fine-tuning of pedagogy for teachers of uncommonly-taught languages. (MSE) A******************************************************t*************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************t*********************** r. "tYA\ STEVEN ROSS Of EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S. DEPANTNIENT and improvement Office of Educati OPI Ilmarch MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTEDBY INFORMATION RESOURCES EDUCATIONALCENTER (ERIC) reprOduCed aS been rtlt 1/4'11 This document haS or orgenrzation received fromthe person originahng made to improve have been MrnOr changes Quality reproductron rn !ha docu oomions Stated othc,a' RESOURCES Points ot we* cr represent TO THE EDUCATIONAl ment do notnecessarily or policy INFORMATION CENTER (MCI OE RI positron 1991 Iriterisi-vve S-unairrir Iristit-ute Prc3grani EvaluatiDri ISECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING &CURRICULUM CENTER University of Hatvai'i at Minoa - BEST COPY AVAILABLE Contents Overview to the Evaluation Chinese Focused Events. 7 Spanish Focused Events 31 Japanese Focused Events 51 Indonesian Focused Events 71 Conclusions 81 References 85 Appendix i : Sample Observe: Citations 87 Appendix II Classroom Observations (Chinese) 89 Appendix III: Classroom Observations (Spanish) 109 Appendix IV: Classroom Observations (Japanese) 135 Appendix V: Classroom Observations ( Indonesian) 165 1991 INTENSIVE SUMMERINSTITUTE PROGRAM EVALUATION Overview to the Evaluation The National Foreign Language ResourceCenter Intensive Summer Institute was designed toprovide the basis for methodological innovationand awareness of what has come to be called the 'proficiencymovement' (Omaggio, 1986). To these ends, the intensive course included lectures,demonstrations and practice teaching ex neriencesfor teachers of Japanese, Chinese,Indonesian and Spanish. While inC'vidual components of the Institute such aslectures and demonstrations could be evaluated independently, their influence is mutualand therefore create a context for a holistic impact on the intensive course participants. In evaluating the processes and effects ofthe NFLRC Intensive Summer Institute we seek first to identify how participants come toview the process of teaching and learning within the context ofthe proficiency approach to modern language teaching. In order to accomplish thisgoal, the approach to evaluation used relied primarily on the perceptions of the participatingstudents and teachers rather than on the pre-set can gories of surveys, or solely onthe interpretations of observers. Since the goal of this evaluation is toprovide a basis for describing the processes influencing the parti6pants' understanding andadaptation of the proficiency movement objectives, and forproviding suggestions for planning future Intensive Summer Institutes, the approach used herefocuses on the 'formative' nature of the program. The formativeapproach to evaluation (Scriven 1974; Shadish,Cook and Leviton, 1991) need not wait until theend of the program for assessment to commence. It insteadseeks to consider how relevant processes internal tothe program emerge and change. STR JCTURE OF THE INTENSIVESUMMER INSTITUTE The teacher training and learning experience wasthe central focus of the Institute. The participants in each of fourlanguage groups, Chinese, Indonesian, Ross, S. (1991). 1991 huensive Stanrner institute ProgramEvaluation (Research Ncte #3). Honolulu, Hawai'i: University of Hawai'i, Second Language. Teaching& Cffriculum Center. 4 2 1991 Intensive Summer Institute Evaluation: Overview Japanese and Spanish, were led by 'master teachers', whose major task was to provide exemplary teaching, organize the language-specific activities, schedule teaching practice cessions, direct materials preparation, and lead group critique sessions. The process of practice teaching, receiving feedback from peers and students,along with concurrent study of a new foreign language was designed to provide the best context for understanding thc ways proficiency-orientee teaching can be implemented. After the initial week of orientation and workshops designed to introduce the theories of pedagogy underlying the proficiency approach to modern language teaching, the participants selected a language that they would study intensively for the remaining five weeks of the Institute. Each day was structured around a two-hour period in which participants took turns teaching the language they had specialized in before they changed roles and learned a language unfamiliar to them. The last portion of this session included an open critique during which students provided feedback to their teachers ancl raised issues about methodology. The third session of the day was reserved for teachers to prepare the next day's materials and to go over the salient classroom events of the day. The final session pr,..rided time for self-access to the University of Hawaii Computer Laboratory where participants could use a personal computer to record their impressions of the day's events. Figure 1 Intensive Summer Institute Daily Schedule: Weeks 2 through 6 MOND AY TUESD AY WEDNESDAY THUR SD AY FR ID Al ........ Chinese & Chinese & Chinese & Cs hp iannei & Chinese & 1 Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Indonesian & Indonesian & Indonesian & Indonesian & Indonesian & 2 Japanese Japanese Japanese Japanes.e Japanese Teachers Teachers Teachers General Teach rrs 3 Meetings Meetings Meetings Meetings Meetings Journal Journal Journal Journal 4 Writing Writing Writing Writing 1991 Intensive Summer Insiitute Evaluation: Overview 3 PARTICIPANTS Thirty-two teachers were selected to participate in the Intensive Summer Institute. The teachers currently arc in-service professionals at the high school through university level, or are advanced pre-service graduate students preparing for ca:eers as foreign language teachers. As many of the participants are nativespeakers of the language they teach, the use of English as the medium of instruction during the orientation semir.ars and guest lectures potentially presents a problemfor comprehension and subsequent adaptation to the goals of the proficiency approach to teaching. Also, the journal entry aspect of the evaluation required participants to write their impressions of the classroom processes in English. This policy may 'cad to differential degrees of explicitness in the journals, and may affect the frequency and fluency of the journal narratives. OBSERVATION OF CLASSES Since journal entries tend to provide a personal perspective on the events of the classroom processes, independent observers for each language were trained prior to the Institute to provide objective data. The observers' primary objective was to provide an account of the classroom which included 'structural' information about the time used for different activities, and an on-going log of the discrete activities employed in the respective classes. The second goal of the observers was to identify events emerging from the classroom processes which possibly revealed points at which students and teachers converged in relation to the goals of the Institute. Likewise, 'trouble spots', or points of divergence were also possible events identified for subsequent focus. Not all classroom events were necessarily