Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Practicum Case Study
Practicum Case Study
Contexts
I
am
going
to
focus
on
two
contexts
for
this
case
study,
as
there
has
been
two
times
in
the
last
year
that
Ive
been
faced
with
this
situation.
The
first
context
was
at
an
IEP
called
the
American
Language
Institute,
a
part
of
California
State
University
Long
Beach.
This
program
hosts
groups
of
potential
college
aged
students
from
all
over
the
world,
with
the
hopes
that
they
will
matriculate
into
the
main
university
(CSULB)
after
a
semester
to
a
year-and-a-half
of
intensive
English
classes.
I
taught
a
level
1
grammar
class
and
a
foundation
level
(the
level
below
1)
listening/speaking
class.
Both
classes
were
full
of
Saudi
Arabian
men
and
women
aged
18- 27.
Both
classes
had
a
final
exam
that
was
written
by
the
administrators
of
the
program,
and
the
teachers
werent
allowed
to
see
the
exam
before
we
administered
it
to
our
students.
We
were
only
allowed
to
know
the
format
of
the
exam
and
that
it
encompassed
the
main
objectives
the
course
was
supposed
to
fulfill.
The
second
context
where
I
have
been
challenged
by
this
circumstance
is
at
the
Salinas
Adult
School.
The
class
I
teach
in
is
a
mixed-level
class
that
takes
place
M-F
8:30- 12:30
in
six-week
cycles.
The
students
are
mostly
Mexican
immigrants,
with
a
Taiwanese
woman,
an
Iranian
woman
and
a
Chinese
woman.
The
goals
of
this
course
are
to
prepare
these
adult
learners
for
real-life
contexts
in
which
they
will
need
English
to
potentially
get
better
paying
jobs
in
the
U.S.
and
just
to
function
in
a
dominantly
English
speaking
country.
The
test
that
students
take
in
this
course
is
the
CASAS
test.
There
are
several
components,
but
the
part
of
the
test
I
have
been
asked
to
prepare
students
for
is
the
listening
part.
If
students
pass
this
test,
the
Salinas
Adult
School
is
given
money
by
the
government.
This
school
is
severely
underfunded,
and
the
money
that
comes
from
students
passing
this
test
keeps
the
school
running.
Challenges
At
ALI
in
Long
Beach,
all
foundation
level
students
in
the
program
are
given
the
same
test,
regardless
of
their
teacher.
However,
each
teacher
is
given
a
certain
amount
of
freedom
about
what
to
teach,
the
vocabulary
to
cover,
and
how
they
want
to
assess
students
(other
than
this
final
exam).
As
a
new
teacher,
I
took
this
freedom
and
ran
with
it.
I
thought
up
fun
oral
presentations,
played
a
lot
of
speaking
games
and
tried
to
make
the
2
hour
and
20
minute
class
as
interactive
as
possible
given
the
low
level
of
the
learners.
As
teachers,
we
arent
allowed
to
know
what
the
topic
of
the
test
will
be,
so
we
cant
be
sure
to
cover
the
vocabulary
that
is
presented
in
the
exam.
Also,
the
director
of
the
program
was
the
speaker
in
the
video
and
she
intimidated
the
students.
Another
challenge
was
that
there
ended
up
being
a
lot
of
reading
involved
in
the
listening
test,
although
this
class
was
not
supposed
to
focus
on
reading
skills
primarily.
The
test-
in
my
opinion-
was
way
too
hard
for
the
learners!
And
it
turns
out
that
the
director
ended
up
talking
about
the
history
of
Sarah Elizabeth Colburn April 24, 2012 Practicum Case Study blue jeans on the test, using all sorts of vocabulary that the students had never learned (like rivets and slacks). The worst part of the test is that the students had a lot of difficulty simply comprehending the questions they were supposed to answer. I was not allowed to give them any help in deciphering what the questions meant. Much of her talk was in past tense, and these students focused mostly on present tense during the semester (remember this is a PRE-level 1 class). At Salinas Adult School, I sat in a room and listened to the listening component of the CASAS practice test, to get an idea about what the test is like. This listening test is one of the most inauthentic, decontextualized tests Ive ever listened to! The questions about the listening passage arent related to one another at all. Honestly, you have to be so engaged and high level (which a lot of these students arent) to understand how to listen to the directions. It reminds me of the Spanish listening quizzes that I used to take in high school. One example of an unclear statement used in this test is payroll used the wrong leave time. This is a culture test as well as a listening test, and many of these students work in the fields and have never been on a payroll. My challenge from my cooperating teacher was to create lessons that would prepare the students for this test in some ways. All of the activities that I wanted to create though (using authentic resources and real language use) didnt seem to be relevant to what they would need to practice to pass this test.