Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาส และปีใหม่

สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาส และปีใหม่Wishing you a very Merry Christmas 08 and a wonderful New Year 09 from the Blogger (Tuk)

Great thought for the day by Eknath:

We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all Eternity. . . . But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me.
– Meister Eckhart


The Lord of Love, immortal and infinite, comes as a divine incarnation in times of great crisis to rescue mankind from disaster. In age after age, whenever violence and hatred threaten the world, the Lord comes down to inspire and protect those who turn to him, who live in harmony with the law of unity. He comes to protect such people from the heavy odds ranged against them, and to reestablish peace on earth and good will among all.

Yet there is another level on which this divine birth can take place. Every one of us has this choice: shall I prepare for the divine birth to take place in my consciousness by abolishing my own selfishness? It is up to you and me to keep our doors open, to put up a little sign, “Ready for receiving an incarnation.” But our house must not be cluttered up. It must be empty of selfishness and self-will. Only then can the blessed child be born in our humble hearts.

Service Learning: What a fun, productive (yet exhusted) way to teach!

A reflective writing after the read of Community-Service Pedagogy(writen in 2004)

First of all, I thought I understood what Community-Service or Service learning was when I started reading the first two pages of a textbook. I thought service learning was somewhat volunteer service or an intership. Students would search for their own community nonprofit and social service agencies and assist them to meet their needs. By doing so, students also learn how to deal with all the tasks they are assigned. Like my situation, I worked for a tourist police department as an intern for a two-month period without getting paid. Therefore, I take this as a service-learning. On the contrary, I came across a paragraph at the bottom of page 134 where it said that "Service learning is not national service, community service, or volunteer service or voluntrism, not is it the same as an academic internship or field placement." This relly bewildered me; I stopped reading for a moment; and thought about the distinction between service-learning that I understood and service-learning that Waterman explained. Now, I recalled my understanding about service-learning again. I still thought that it was some kind of services such as the Martin Luther King Day of Service, or tutoring and mentoring projects, in this sense, is not just that students helping communities willingly to meet their needs and their purposes, but students also gain knowledge, skills, and perspectives that broaden their understanding in the "real world writing."

Then, I cam across a passage where Julier mentioned that "Ira Harkery and Lee Benson also see service learning as a pedagogy derived from a theory of democratic education and schooling developed by John Dewey to replace Plato's aristocratic theory of education and society" (134)

After I finished reading the chapter, I had many questions in my head about how service learning can be employed in a classroom, how teachers can assign projects to students based on their various interests, how students can manage their time working for communities, and what the class will be like? One thing that I know of is that teachers are going to have to work harder to have to carefully assign the projects based on their values and other circumstances. Also, there is one more thing that I still doubt with, which is about the outcome(s)that students will get from the "real world writing" or communities. In other words, what would students really get from service learning, and how it would benefit in their writing class?

A recent reflective writing on the project with students (2008)

To be continued!

Compare our life to a woodpecker in regard to sustainable education and development--very sad but true!

This is a reflective writing of the read Eknath's Thought for the Day. After reading Eknath's story and thought on a woodpecker, I couldn't help but agree with him on how dexterous, persevering, determined he is as just a bird! It is preposterous to say that a woodpecker conveys more valuable traits than some of us do, let alone teenagers in this generation and another generation to come. People these days seem to lack of sustained enthusiasm, desire, and passion. Perhaps, looking at the woodpecker pecking away a tree might do us any good! As for my view,talking about it in regard to my teaching avenue as a teacher, possessing a sustained enthusiasm and passion would help create a great deal of sustainable teaching and learning....

The following is a story about a woodpecker of Ekanth.

A few days ago I was watching a woodpecker, a creature I hadn’t seen since I left India. This one had a red turban. While I watched, he came and alighted on a huge tree. He was quite a small creature, and the trunk of the tree was enormous. I wanted to go up to him and say, “What, make a hole in that huge trunk with your tiny beak? Impossible. Preposterous!”

But this little woodpecker was not intimidated by size. He did not throw up his legs in despair; he just alighted and went about looking for the right place to begin operations.

It is the same with transforming consciousness; you have to look for the right spot. In some people it is a particular compulsive craving; in some it is jealousy; in some, blind fury. Some may be fortunate enough to have all three. Each person has to look for that spot where urgent work is most needed.

Let me continue with the story of the woodpecker. Once our red-turbaned chap had checked out possible areas for working, he settled down at what looked like a solid, unyielding spot and started pecking away rhythmically. He didn’t just give a peck or two and then fly off in search of a worm, not to return for half an hour. He went on pecking systematically, with sustained enthusiasm, until he was done. I was amazed at his dexterity. When he had finished, he left such a large hole that if he had gone on, I have no doubt the entire tree would have fallen.

That is the kind of work required to transform personality. For a long time, all we are doing in meditation is pecking away at what we want to change in ourselves. At best it is tedious; often it is downright painful. The problem is that we identify ourselves with the accumulation of habits and opinions, likes and dislikes, which we have developed over the years. We think this is who we are, and are not prepared to let it die.

“How Long Will It Take Me To Speak English Fluently?”

“How Long Will It Take Me To Speak English Fluently?”

One of the questions that Thai learners, as well as other second language learners, always have in mind is “How long will it take me to speak English fluently?” This question is always in the back of the learners’ minds and never seems to disappear. After learning English or other second languages for awhile, the learners start to feel frustrated, disappointed, and become less motivated. As a result, the learners do not seem to gain language proficiency despite many years of learning it, especially in the speaking area because Thai and English are significantly different from each other. Therefore, this becomes one of the significant problems that hold back their potentials in learning English. However, instead of answering to the question, I’d rather restate it to “How will we speak English fluently?” Studying abroad? Paying a big ward of money to a language institute? Or Spending more time on reading something you like?

Certainly, my answer is reading. Generally speaking, it takes a long time, a lot of effort and endless practice in learning a new language such as English. Nevertheless, the learners can expedite the learning process by employing many different methods. One of them is reading. Reading is the key that helps second-language learners to develop their speaking skills. Most importantly, it is so cheap that sometimes it would not cost you a dime. By reading, the learners are able to expand their vocabulary and expressions used in every day conversation. Besides, they are vicariously and inevitably exposed to the new country and are able to understand its culture and people told in the story. Thus, this is another way to help the learners to be able to speak English correctly and fluently. Then, the new questions arise, “How can I start reading? And, what kind of book should I read?”

Based on a research, “reading is a habit which is developed at a very early age. If a child is in an environment where adults are always reading something, the child develops that habit. We need to have material that will entice the young to read more. It is from those romantic books that some of us have moved on to reading other things of importance.” This can be concluded that we should read at the early age. However, does it mean that it is too late for SPU students and other adult learners? No. Learning is never too late! The learners should start reading what they are most interested in. There are many numbers of books, magazines or articles for them to read. For beginners, they might want to read easy and short books, such as the penguin collection, that entice their interests. As soon as they gain enough vocabulary words, they might consider searching for more difficult books to read. If they like imagination, they might want to grab Harry Potter to read in their free time. Harry Potter consists of many episodes, and its next episode is coming out in a movie theatre next year. If they are interested in spiritual living and thoughts, they might want to find a book entitled Take Your Time by Eknath Eswaran. This book teaches them about how to live their lives to the fullest and how to put others’ first; it will certainly enlighten their restless minds! Last but not least, if they are in love, they might consider reading The Letter of Suzanne to Nicolas by James Patterson. This New York best-seller novel will surely bring them to tears, and you will understand the importance of love better.

Now that they know how imperative reading is and what books to read, they can get started on building the habit of reading and find a good book to read. However, they have to START NOW! NO PROCRASTINATING! Once their reading is sharpened, then their speaking will become superb and their writing will be remarkable. Although you should keep in mind that things do take time. If anyone has good books to share with me, please feel free to do so. By Ajarn Piboon Sukvijit

Learning through extra curriculum--English for Business Negotiations

An English for Business Negotiation Project--A Hand-on experience on Negotiations





This activity was taken place in 2007 and was initiated in order to meet with the course objectives and provide the students an opportunity to gain more knowledge, practice, and performance by doing. I always attempt to see my students , especially forth year ones, brush up and employ their accumulated knowledge and skills to good use on their last year of the academic surrounding. Thus, this seminar was done by the students with the teacher providing the guidelines; it was also the integral part of the learning process, which is concentrated on learning by doing.

This course is designed to provide opportunities for forth-year students to improve both their negotiation and English language skills (especially speaking and writing). This is a ‘hands-on’ course where students will learn the basics of the negotiation process, including tactics and language required to conduct effective negotiations. Cross cultural awareness, including verbal and non-verbal languages, will be introduced to the students. Nevertheless, the focus will be on learning, practicing, and refining skills in using the English language in negotiations while reflecting upon performance so that the students can apply their skills to the ‘real world.’ The activities to be practiced will train the students to practice their speaking, listening, writing skills of English in correlation to negotiation process.

What is the Role of a Teacher in the Teaching of Grammar?

The Role of a Teacher in the Teaching of Grammar

Having delved into an actual teaching arena as my profession, many questions about teaching pedagogies trigger my curiosity, especially on how to teach English as a foreign and/or a second language concerning teaching grammar while employing a communicative approach in a classroom setting. By reading Patrick Hartwell’s “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar,” it helps me to find the way out on how to impart knowledge to my students. In the book, I find that the issue of teaching in the classroom is crucially embedded in the article. By stating at the beginning of the article that “I would agree with Janet Emig that grammar issue is a prime example of ‘magical thinking’,” Hartwell notes that Students will learn only what teachers teach and only because they teach. In other words, he implies that the teaching of grammar has no more value than “making a prospective driver get a degree in automotive engineering before engaging the clutch” (216). In addition, he includes at the end of the essay that “it is, after all, a question of power,” which is “to take power from the teacher and to give that power to the learner” (228). Here, one cannot help but arguer with this notion by asking, “So, what is the role of a teacher then?” Certainly, the role of a teacher is to contribute an appropriate power to both native and non-native learners in a formal classroom setting.

For native learners, some elements of grammar are acquired by natural means in informal situations. It consists of rules, principles, etc, that are not available to conscious attention. Therefore, the teacher has to pay attention to the internal processes and knowledge the students are building up in their mind. In other words, the teacher’s role, according to Neuleib, is “to help students understand the system they know unconsciously as native speakers, to teach them the necessary categories and labels that will enable them to think about the talk about their language” (206). I totally agree with Neuleib that the teacher still performs an important role in a classroom, and I also believe that in playing this role the teacher must exercise the power in the classroom. I call this power a ‘passive power,’ which means the teacher is a facilitator or a shadow, observing the individual’s needs in writing. As Peal notes in her article, “The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers,” that “Seen in this light, composing becomes the carrying forward of an implicit sense into explicit form. Teaching composing, then, means paying attention not only to the forms or products but also to the explicative process through which they arise” (39). Helping to bring an implicit sense into explicit forms, the role of a teacher is enormously crucial. Because the teacher s will not only teach them the forms or products, but they also have to concentrate on the processes they utilize. As Pearl suggests,

Teachers may first need to identify which characteristic components of each student’s process facilitate writing and which inhibit it before further teaching takes place. If they do not, teachers of unskilled writers may continue to place themselves in a defeating position: imposing another method of writing instruction upon the students’ already internalized processes without first helping students to extricate themselves from the knots and tangles in those processes (38-39).

The power of teachers here is projected as a passive one because the students do not notify the teachers’ actual role.

The teachers’ role as a facilitator, however, is insufficient to assist the second-language learners in “monitoring” of what they have already acquired in a formal classroom situation. Instead, the role of teachers is an ‘active role,’ taking an ‘active power’ to teach students grammatical rules. The teacher has to teach conscious grammatical rules to them in order for them to check whether the tense is right, for instance, in this sense, the teaching of grammar is drastically valuable. From my experience as a teaching assistant in an Intensive English Program, I see that the teacher plays a significant role in order to help second-language learners’ master the principle of writing in English, thereby the students can put the grammar they have learned to good use.

Obviously, it is unnecessary to take power from the teacher and give that power to the learner because eventually students need assistance from their teachers in making decisions in writing. As Murray notes in his essay “Tech Writing as Process Not Product” that “We (as teachers) share our students the continual excitement of choosing one word instead of another, of searching for the one true word” (4). Hence, the role of teachers is essential. It is, after all, a master of utilizing these two different types of power—‘active’ and ‘passive.’ The role of the teacher is then to provide the right power to the right students in order to put the teaching of writing to good use. As Hartwell believes that there are many meaning s of grammar, the teacher’s role is to select the best one that would be appropriate to their students.

The reflection on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)

The Pedagogy of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) by Susan McLead

After I read the chapter, I thought how could be employ this pedagogy successfully in a classroom. I cannot imagine it being employed throughout high-schools or colleges because it needs a lot of collaborations. Don't other teachers think that teaching writing is not their job? And who should be responsible for writing in other disciplines?

According to the chapter, Susan McLead says, "One day I was cornered just outside my office by a friend who taught history, who was furious with me and with (it appeared) not only the English Department but the entire discipline of English. 'Why can't you people teach these students how to write?' he wondered. I was defensive-of course I was teaching them how to write." I started to consider it isn't the responsibility of the history teacher to teach his students in the class how to write a paper in history writing style" Isn't it the history teacher's job to teach students what proper words or sentence structure they should use in the paper? At any rate, I believe that the responsibility of WAC is subject to both teachers. They have to work together as co-workers and decide how they could help their students. I think blaming and tossing the responsibility to the writing teacher is somewhat unfair.

Initially, I thought that writing teacher should teach students who to write well. Teachers should teach students how to write grammatically correct and how to present their paperwork from their own voices. However, after I finished reading the chapter, this pedagogy is really directly beneficial for students. It definitely helps students to ease their writing in any disciplines. It is funny that after I read the chapter, I talked to my friend about it on the next day. She is majoring in Social Science and hate writing for her English class. She said she hated writing because sometimes she handed in her paper for her English class, she got screwed up. she got the paper back with a lot of red marks all over the page. From talking to her, it brought back to the idea of WAC. I don't remember having such problem in my college years because, in Thailand, we teach English as a foreign language. Therefore, all we write is sentences and short paragraph (at least in my University with majoring in English for Business and Communication). I learned only basic English skills and the rest of the program was in Thai.

According to the last paragraph on page 151, "On the contrary, most of us who have been involved in WAC program from the beginning see 'writing to learn' and 'write to communicate' as two complementary, even synergistic approaches to writing across the curriculum." I think that "writing to learn" is the students write for themselves by write journals and "quick write." This helps students and teachers to get a better understanding in terms of communication. The teacher and students will be able to communicate in the same "language." Then, there is another branch in WAC called "writing to communicate" Writing to communicate is to write from the audience by using their former level of their disciplines.

Finally, I have found this chapter was intriguing and extremely helpful for students. I think this is the most effective way for teaching writing method that will definitely benefit students. However, it's lots of work and endeavor. Writing teachers may encourage teachers from other faculties to teach students how to write as well. Overall, I think this pedagogy might be easy to execute in small college and high-schools because it is easier to cooperate with other faculties.