Journal 8 (second module)

 In this session, I learned useful information about the second layer of the CDA framework proposed by Fairclough. In this section, it is emphazised the “the point” of the text, that is the summary interpretation of the text, which is stored in our long-term memory and is easy to recall. Another important aspect of the "Interpretation" stage is the Member Resources: assumnptions, values, beliefs, etc. So, it focuses on the social context and the background knowledge we have about the topic of the text. 

1.    Situational context: 

Situation: What’s going on? activity, purpose, topic; who is involved? in what relations? What is the role of the language?

Discourse type: contents, subjects, relations, connections.

2.    Intertextual context: Any situation interpretation is influenced by other background text or experiences. (something that is presupposed “taken for granted”) presuppositions can be manipulative, or sincere.

Journal 7 (second module)

 In the session of today, I essentially reinforce my understanding of the first layer of CDA proposed by Fairclough. This first part of the analysis is pretty essential for the overall analysis, although it is at a textual level, it encompasses a close interpretation of the text itself. Today, I started with my group partners to read the text that will be analyzed under the Fairclough CDA framework. The text is called "Ley de bilingüísmo 1651"; I had read this law a cuople of times in some courses at university; but I've never been able to see this paper throughout an analytical and critical perspective. So, I consider this seminar is great because it has given me tools, strategies, and frameworks about CDA that I have never listened or seen before. This new learning is going very well, today we read the law, and tried to think on categories that could inclose all the most important aspects and idelogies of the text. 

Journal 6 (second module)

Conducting a CDA seems to be a very long process that have many components to take into account. In today's session, I just got explanations and examples of the first dimension of CDA presented by Fairclough, which is the description, that concerns to analyze the linguistic parts of the text. How this analysis on a word level can be interpreted and tell us too much about not just what but how are things said. This first layer have three parts, which are vocabulary, grammar, and textual structures; and within them there many questions that we as researcher have to focus on in order to have a clear undertanding of the text. Those essentially focus on experiential, relational, and expressive values of the words. These values involve the knowledge and beliefs, social relationship, and social identities withing the words. Some of them can be explicit and others can be implicit. The important issue is that we as consumers of the text could analyze these values in order to unveil the real meaning of the text and how relations of power can be seen within it. 

Glossary:

Euphemism: a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

Classification schemes: They means "categories".

Agent: It is the participant of the sentence who complete an action. Also called the subject of a sentence.

Patient: It is the participant of the sentence who the actions in made on. Also called the object of a sentence.

Event: It is presented when in a sentence there is not an animate agent. 

Non-directed action: It is presented when in a sentence there is an animate agent. 

Possessive attribute: It concerns with belongings but only when the verb "to have" is used.

Non-possessive attribute: It concerns with belongings using all verbs except "to have".

Journal 5 (second module)

  In this session, I felt I was enriched with some new insights about CDA. How I can do a richer and deeper analysis of a text. Some of the aspects are: first, to find patterns withint the text involving lexis, grammar, intertextual relations among texts and second, to propose an interpretation of those patternsm and third, make a relationship between the text and the social context. It is important also that when we analyse a text or a talk we make a connection with the text itself and our background knowledge and experience because the most important is the relation between the text and the reader. However, for having a deeper analysis is essential to include and take into account different  interpretations because people usually have different perspectives because of their differences in their background knowledge. Besides, in CDA is important to take into account that naturalization in discourse has became a reality in our daily life, especially because naturalization is the common-sense beliefs on dominant groups, and it is essential we break those assumptions that have became as a "reality" in our society. To sum up, there are three levels to take into account when analysing a text or a talk, word level (find patterns), text level, and intertextual level. CDA has many different approaches and theories that can be taken into account when we are doing an analysis and it depends on the analyst/researcher to select the most indicated according to his purposes. I just want to focus on Fairclough because his model is the one we are going to work on this module. He claims three dimensions that we have to follow to do the analysis: description, interpretation, and explanation. 

The last sessions of the seminar made me gain knowledge about CDA through examples, exercises of CDA, and some chapters that made me have a better understanding of what CDA is and what it implies. Thus, CDA concerns unveiling the meaning-making process of a given discourse (language in use) in a text, talking into account that a text comes in any forms (visual, written, aural, oral, etc). Furthermore, through these lessons I learned about the importance of analyzing not just the text as if it was the whole process because it is not the process but the product and resource used for those processes; whereas discourse is the whole process of social interaction which includes the process of production and the process of interpretation. Both processes are important because it implies the production, distribution, conssumption, interpretation, and explanation of the text. This last part about the explanation of the text which includes the social relationship and the text or talk, it is important here to know the power relationships that still exist in our society. Normally, within these relations come the social struggles, these struggles are almost impossible to erase since they are just part of us, they maintain the social system and the maximization of a social power. 

Glossary:

Intertextuality: It is the interconnection between similar or related works of literature.

Naturalize language: The language concerns with the common-sense beliefs that generally are imposed by dominant groups especially by media.

Synthetic personalization: It is the process of addressing mass audiences as though they were individuals through inclusive language usage.

CLS: Critical language study.

Langue: A system or code which is prior to actual language use.

Parole: It is the social side of the language, so it is the language use.  

Description: Linguistic features of the text, structures that are used. (text analysis)

Interpretation: Relationship between text and interaction. (processin analysis)

Explanation: Relationship between interaction and social context. (social analysis)

Member Resources (MR): Representations of the natural and social worlds such as inhabit, values, beliefs, assumptions, and so on.

Relational dialectics: It is an interpersonal communication theory about close personal ties and relationships that highlights the tensions, struggles and interplay between contrary tendencies.

Journal 4 (second module)

In the session of today, I was introduced more deeply in the definition of CDA, I like to understand better this because I used to confuse DA with CDA which are in somehow similar but at the same time have some contrasts. Now, I know that CDA is a research method which is problem-or issue-oriented. That is, it focuses on social problems and studies the relations between discourse and society. Besides, CDA studies the social perpetuation of dominance and power abuse by texts and talks in a socio-political context. It not only focuses on the production and reproduction of power abuse or domination but studies a way of transformation so it formulates an overall perspective of solidarity with dominated groups which create strategies of counter-power and counter-ideologies of challenge and resistance. To conclude, CDA studies the relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language.

Something interesting that I read today was about the approaches to study CDA which are the follows:

1. Fairclough’s Socio-Cultural Approach: It focuses in analyzing: (a) the linguistic description of the formal properties of the text; (b) the interpretation of the relationship between the discursive processes/interaction and the text, and finally, (c) the explanation of the relationship between discourse and social and cultural reality. 

2. Van Dijk’s Socio-Cognitive Approach: It concentrates on social cognition as the mediating part between text and society. 

3. Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach: It emphazises how discourse is connected synchronically and diachronically with other communicative events.

Glossary:

Critical Discourse Analysis: It's an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice.

Interdisciplinary procedure: It involves the combining of two or more academic disciplines into one activity.

Transformative: It means "having the power to transform.".

Journal 3 (second module)

 In this session of the seminar, I reinforce my knowlegde about discourse throught watching a video, this video helped me recall that discourse comes in various type of communication, not just written. As well as, different topics are inmersed. When we refer to discourse analysis, it consists on not only analysing the text itself but studying what and how people communicate it. The study of discourse tries to understand beyond the literal meaning and how language is used to do things and means things in real-world situation. Furthermore, it is important to know the different disciplines and approaches that are taking into account when analysing a text. I got some insights about the various disciplines that helped to form DA such as anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and linguistics. Each approach has its complexities and characteristics which differs from one another. Finally, in order to analyse spoken discourse we need to see it from different perspectives, its literal meaning, its context and speaker's intension. Likewise. the assumptions, beliefs, and background knowledge are the ones that lead the communication among speakers.

Glossary:

ethnography of speaking: language using as a cultural practice.

Pragmatics: How language is used to do things and means things in real-world situation.

Ethnomethodology: social actors are not just “dopes” following rules but actively creators of orders through their behaviors.

Conversation analysis: CA study the orderliness of ordinary talks. 

Interactional sociolinguistics: It is an approach to discourse analysis that studies how people use language in face-to-face interaction giving importance to the smallest variations of the language.

Intercultural communication: It is a talk among people who have different cultural backgrounds. 

Journal 2 (second module)

 In the session of today, I learned a few new things and elements from the spoken discourse umbrella. First of all, I would say that I used to think that a text was a written information specifically longer than one sentences; however, it is important to highlight that a text is any kind of information that conveys meaning thought different mediums, not just written. Every piece of text we get from our daily life is analyse by us even without realizing. For example, the usu of symbol in the traffic, we analyse those texts according to our own real-life experiences and our context. 

Besides, something relevant for the session of today was that it was emphazised and cleared the difference among conversation, talk, and discourse. Those three tend to be confused each other but they have some contrasting aspects. For example, conversation is only a two-ways of spoken language while talk can be both a one-way or two-ways spoken language; and the difference from discourse is that it can be more inclusive because it not only focuses on spoken language but any other kind of language such as visual, written, aural, audiovisual, etc. Also, it is a more technical term than talk.

I would say that all about discourse analysis and primarly spoken discourse analysis is important and essential for us as human and teachers because we need to make explicit what we normally take for granted, for example that we are good at talking just because it is use in our daily life. Besides, it's essential for our life to analyse not just what people say but “how” they say it. To achive this analysis of the discourse it is importante to take into account not just the formalist and structural part of the language but the functionalism, that is, to convey a real and in-depth analysis, we need to focus on the form as well as the function of the language. 

Glossary:

Conversation: Conversation has generic (all kinds of spoken interaction) and more specific uses (natural interaction).  It implies interaction. 

Talk: It only refers to spoken language-use and it can be both one-way and two-ways of language use.

Discourse: It is a more general type of conversation so it refers to any kind of language by any channel or medium.

Formalism/structuralim: It consists of looking for patterns, structures, and organizations of a text.

Functionalism: Language is used and interpreted in real-world context, that is, real world knowledge is essential for interpretations and analysis.

Journal 1 (second module)

 In the session of today, I review some of my insight about critical theory and the importance of critical turn in education. Besides, I learned about the different kind of text because I used to think that a text is a written piece of information that give us input about certain topics. However, I could undertand now that texts come in different presentations, it can be aural, visual, audiovisual, written, etc. Besides, something important about a text is that it gives us an amount of meaning, both implicit and explicit. It depends on us how to contruct those meanings, it can have different perspectives according to each person's experience and something really good is to have the opportunity to share our view, insights, and ideas about certain topics, specially touchy topics which commonly bring discussion into the classroom. Language is so important for our society specially for us as language teachers, we have to undertand the important role of it in the classroom, it is how student get information, can express their thoughts, and can establish a discussion with others. 

Something else that I take from this lesson is a great quote by Giroux which focuses on the meaning of being literate, this has been traditionally refered to a person who can write and read, but this is not longer the meaning. All society has changed and also the basic skills that humans need. Thus, being literate goes beyond to read and write, it is about being able to understand new worlds view and challenges, and it is also about being skillful in information and communication technology. 

Glossary:

Text: A piece written, visual, or spoken information that may be regarded as an object of critical analysis.

Implicit meaning: Something is implied but not stated directly.

Explicit meaning: Something is made clear and stated directly.

Literacy: It consist on knowing how to read the world more than words. 

Journal 9

 In the session of today, I read interesenting descriptions and conceptions, by different scholars, about what Critical pedagogy is. So, after read all those, I could make my own understanding of critical view in education. I would say that have a critical pedagogy is so much imprtant for our role as teacher, it contributes to students autonomy and consciousness. It has to be not only with the undertanding of our social context but how it affects us as individuals of this society. We as teacher must rethink about our teaching practice, and who we are in the classroom, who our students are, in that way our classrooms would become spaces to lead to social transformation.

One way to become more critical and aware about our teaching practices is the development of self-reflection. This is very important for us to evaluate and analyze our development in the classroom, who we are as teacher, and what practices we can change in order to become our students and ourselves more critical. It was very interesting to analyze and make a connection between the curriculum of the English teaching program at Surcolombiana and the awareness-raising. I could reach a conclusion doing this connection, and it is tha the program should change and improve their curriculum and include more teaching practicum since the beginning of the degree because we start to be student-teachers since the first semester so we need to feel so. I would like to think and feel like a teacher since the very beginning in order to start constructing my teacher awareness and identity.

Glossary:

Awareness-raising: It is an exploration process in which we as teachers think and perceive the concept of teaching and our role in there.

Reflection: It is an exploration process in which we as teachers evaluate and analyze our own teaching practices in order to improve them. 

Journal 8

 In the session of today, I continued enjoying the learning about critical pedagogy, this interesting approach that have becomed my goal as a teacher. I watched two videos that I found it great and helpful to understand better how a classroom focused on critical pedagogy would be. I always have enjoyed working with kids because they usually contribute to a better and dynamic environment in the classroom. However, I used to think that for students to be critical consisted on talking about political aspects, so in that way, this would be very difficult to work with kids. But now, I can be sure to say that, critical pedagogy consists more on students empowerment and autonomy, students as desicion makers, and students as relevant agents in the classroom who have a voice that matters. 

I understand now the importance of dialogism in the classroom, that is to give my students more opportunities to speak in the classroom, to express their thoughts and to choose the select some activities or topics they would like to work. I would like to emphazise the respect to others in the classroom, so students will feel confortable when they talk and feel free to express what they want because their classmates and me would be open to listen to every contribution and thought they have. I know that me as the teacher am the one who create and develop the curriculum but students have the right to choose how to carry out the tasks I ask them to do. Finally, something that I found interesting from the video was this new concept "funds of knowledge", these funds are different in each students and have to be taken into account at the moment of create the tasks in the classroom since they contribute to a better development of the tasks and to increase students' instrinsic motivation. 

Glossary:

Dialogism: Equal opportunity for all members to speak, everyone respects another’s right to speak and all ideas are tolerated.

Funds of knowledge: Students' connection to their families and social context. 

Autonomy: The ability to make your own decisions without being controlled by anyone else but being responsable and respecting others. 

Journal 7

I am glad with my learning in today session because I had the opportunity to read and discuss about an approach that was developed almost 40 years ago but it is still new for me. I used to think that communicative language approach was the most significant for students' learning, in which they have the chance to learn and enjoy the language. Still, it is exactly what is it, communicative approach focused essentially on language itself, giving it even more importance than students' personal, social and cultural lives. So, in that way, this approach that is called "Critical pedagogy" gives a lot of more importance and power to students' emancipation. It is focused on a problem posing education more than a baking education, that is, students are social agents of change in their own society, even in their educational context. We as critical teachers are transformative intellectuals, so we have the role of encouraging and empowering students to analyze and challenge the authority within their educational and living situations if the consider it necessary. 

Within this pedagogical approach, although teachers represent the authority in the class, they both students and teacher are co-agents, that means, they use dialogism in order to make the education more libratory and social transformative. In that way, praxis is the most important part of the education because it emphazises on equality between teacher and students, so students are not anymore empty boxes who just receive the knowledge. Finally, I like to emphazise that marginalization in CP is completely avoided, it allows to students have a voice and teacher to be a guide and helper in this path and process of liberation and emancipation. I really love this approach, although I consider that at the moment I am still focus more on communicate the language instead of being critical, I would like to change my perspective of teaching and giving more importance to students' life and help them to become active agent in their living situations and to develop a critical consciousness of it.

Glossary:

Critical pedagogy: It is a teaching approach which help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that dominate, and help them achieve a critical consciousness. 

Critical consciousness: People with this consciousness can interpret the problems and analyze their realities. It is not just individual and intellectual effort but a collective result. 

Libratory education: To empower students to challenge oppressive social condition and to work toward a more just society.

Banking education: It is a represention of student being vessels who just receive information and knowledge.  

Problem posing education: Education that lead to critical consciousness, focus on problematic issues in learners’ lives.

Journal 6

 From this session, I just want to recall the importance for a teacher to have clear her identity because for example, in my case, I used to think this was a act of classifying or labeling myself, and I did not like to do so. However, now I undertand that this construction of identity is pretty important and useful for the process of developing myself as a professional. 

In order to create this identity, we have to take into account different aspects such as experience, emotions, materials, institutions, theories/beliefs, etc. as well as the local and global tensions help us in the construction of our professional identity. We have to undertand that Identity is not static, it is an outgoing process because the person and the professional that I am rigth now is not the same I was three years ago, and it will not be the same as in the future. I consider these changes in my identity depend too much on my experiences as a teacher, my relationship with students and peers´, and the development in the classes.

Glossary:

Teacher Professional Identity: It is how teachers define their professional roles. Besides, it is how teachers act and interact, position themselves and are positioned in a social place, and a way of being in the world.

Journal 5

 In the session of today, I learned something very interesting; "professionalism" has been always connected with having a major; and I include myself when I refer to this because I used to think there was a relationship between they both. However, now I consider that in my case being a professional includes more aspects than just having studied a degree. It involves the development of my critical reflective practice, my cognitions as a teacher, and how I situate EFL methods, also the creation of my own teacher identity. 

However, we found many tensions across our process of becoming professional. One of the most evident global tension is the preference on English native-speaker teachers over non-native teachers. There is still many current discriminatory recruitment practices that continue taking a preference on unqualified native speakers than a qualified and professional 'non-native teachers'. Thus, this results to be a cause of oppression in our context. I would say that even in our program, there are some students who prefer being taught by the native ones, and this is a real problem because we (non-native speakers) are also guilty of choosing NSs over us.  Likewise, we sometimes as learners of the language are marginalized because of our strong Colombian or even opita accent because it does not fit the "ideal" English teacher identity. This mentioned above demostrate the inequality and social injustice in ELT especially focused on 'non-native speaker teacher'.

Other tension that I would like to focus on is the authority and legitimacy in terms of what content to teach and how English should be taught. In my experience as a teacher in a private school, I have seen very evident these aspects since we as English  teachers are not completely free of choosing what topics to teach or even what methodologies to use in the classroom because we are still imposed by the directors of the school. 

Glossary:

Native speaker fallacy: the notion the ideal English teacher is the native speaker of that language.

Professionalism: Include these aspects: critical reflective practice, teacher cognitions, and situated EFL methods.

Teacher cognitions: Besides practical knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge, and personal theories of teaching, which are very much concerned with teachers’ personal and ‘situated’ approaches to teaching.

Marginalization: Treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant or peripheral.

Injustice: It is related to unfairness or undeserved outcomes.

Journal 4

In this session of the seminar, I learned about the characteristics of the ideal English language teacher. Essentially, the ideal foreign language teachers’ role might be characterized by her intercultural competence, innovation, risking attitudes, and a critical view on teaching. 

I read a very interesting text which essentially focused on the ways to start reshaping the teachers’ role to meet society’s demands. This was not something new for me, since in other courses from my degree I have learned and read about it. 

One of the ways is teachers' need to develop intercultural competence: in this case, is important to set the difference of intercultural communication and intercultural awareness; they both are important when talking about interculturality. This interculturality is important because it empowers language teachers to communicate and understand students’ realities better.The second way is teachers as innovators: it essentially emphasizes that teachers should break the traditional rules, and create new teaching alternatives according to students' contexts, needs, and interests. This was also focused on the importance of the students centered-approach which means that it should have a directional and cooperative knowledge construction that challenge traditional models of authority between teachers and students.  And the third way is teachers must acquire critical visions to observe and detect opportunities for change: this essentially means that being critical is being able to adjust new strategies that permit the expansion of knowledge naturally rather than accumulating prescriptive steps and formulas.

Finally, I want to share two quotes that called my attention from the reading:

“They see education in the context of the general society and posit students as social agents to be able to transform it”. (Hinchey, 2004).

"Make language enables students to express what they feel and think about what they live". (Halliday, 1985 cited in Kumaravadivelu, 2003).

These two quotes represent my goal as a language teacher, I just want students to see the language as a means to understand and talk about different subjects and topics, to use the language to express what they feel, and to have the opportunity to choose what they want to learn and how they want to do it, thus I want to be a social agent promoter.

Glossary:

Intercultural communication: Each individual can mediate to avoid misleading communication.

Intercultural awareness: Understand cultural schemata, taking account of individuality without disregarding the other’s identity and culture.

Ideational language: it needs to cover the students' different dimensions such as political, social, and cultural. 

Social agent: Someone who is able to understand different topics and issues in order to transform them and become them better.