Casanave Chapter 1 Jan 16

Casanave (2017) points out that beliefs, that is, conscious deliberation and reflection on one’s teaching, have an important impact on the decision-making process in class. I totally agree with the author, but most of the time we just focus on problems that occur on a day-to-day basis instead of an overarching perspective of what the teaching should be. Take my Chinese language classes as an example: When I first taught high school kids at City High, I was surprised to find that all of the kids are like undergraduates—quiet and hard-working. But soon I discovered that they could not handle tasks that have long or multi-step prompts. Thus, I kept revising the wording of the instructions. After reading this chapter, however, I think I should focus more on a broader picture, for example, the difference of attention systems and dual coding approaches between college students and high school kids, to figure out how I can guide those kids in accomplishing L2 tasks.

I strongly find an echo with the author when she wrote “our own L2 learning experiences influence choices we make today about teaching L2 writing” (p. 5). Not only our L2 learning experiences, but also our first language practice in primary and secondary schools can affect our teaching. However, and this is perhaps abnormal, I will pay more attention to the skills that I cannot achieve when I am an L2 learner. Use the outlining example in Chapter 1(p. 6-7): if I am not good at outlining before writing, I will ask my students to try this skill more often, rather than neglecting it (as the author did at first). Yes, we should teach students based on their own learning styles, but I would rather not let my students have my weaknesses at first.