To Chop or not to Chop? So Blog It is!

In Quali R, I have found space to do the kind of writing I'd like to do which is basically a merging of heart and mind. This usually happens when I feel it's finally time to just let it out. In the past, I've struggled with the "I" point of view  and whether this is even acceptable in the academic world. I wring  and wrestle with my brains whenever I need to decide which portions to chop and which to make sticky due to the page limitations set by conference submission requirements.  Then I get pressured and go through an oc-oc mode. Whenever that happens, my energies are spread thin. By the time I do my presentation, I sometimes feel I sound like a robot---I stick to reading parts of my paper for fear of getting lost and failing to connect with the audience. My Fil-Am English may sound good but that simply does not make the cut for me, especially if I am carrying the name of my unive!!!


And so I blog now. I have here the freedom to include an excerpt from my initial case study report about Nellie, one of the  exemplary teachers at WizIQ. [ Why not you do the chopping cuz I just can't!]. And before you go on...Happy World Teachers' Day! Cheers to this one great teacher I met through WizIQ. Of course, I thank the WizIQ community  for your  indications of "following" and thumbs up= "recommendations" as seen in Nellie's profile page. You guys  led me to her (and to Namrata and who can even miss George of EduPunk!)

Connecting with Online Learners All over the World
Nellie (audio+video):“Ok...let's see. We got Romania, India and any other countries?
sali: iran
Nellie (audio + video): Taiwan...Lithuanian. Iran, yes. I see. Great. So we've got almost the whole world....
arun(chat): diversified session
Nellie (audio + video): Diversified session...thank you, Arun.

Nellie takes time to introduce herself  as "Dr Nellie Deutsch" or simply “Nellie”, a female from Canada, in the same way that she bothers to place her learners geographically by asking “Where are you from?”. Learners' responses are seen one after the other via the chatbox and she is quick to acknowledge their country of origin or nationality while also mentioning their usernames right after the learners do their greetings.  At times, Nellie sets the mood: “I am in Toronto and the weather is absolutely beautiful and it's snowing.....Tonight we are going to be really interactive. Elena says it's a beautiful day, it's snowing, it's cold. Ok you can share that in the chatbox. Let me try and see if we can have some background music...” Nellie is also keen when it comes to knowing her learners' names by passing on the mic to them so she can have them properly pronounce their names while she tries to listen and get her pronunciations right enough. She continues to welcome learners anytime in her class even while she is in the midst of a discussion and she quickly restates the context or topic the class is already tackling.


To a few ones, Nellie comes across with more warmth as her tone changes to greet particular learners: “Oh, hello Aka Ken!”... “Virginia, I haven't heard you in such a long time. I miss your voice and I miss seeing you very much...” After a student had his/her turn to speak over the mic for everyone to hear, she naturally pours out praise and encouragement. She does this to each and every student as a way to connect with them and reinforce speaking in English in whatever accents they bring. After all, she names her series of classes at WizIQ “Speak English Now”.


To Nellie, connecting with learners does not stop with finding out names, timezones, geographical settings or nationalities. She does this at a personal level by sharing personal anecdotes about her self, her family roots, her husband, and her daughter. She candidly expresses “I love....” then refer to an object or activity which is to her most liking. Talking about herself becomes an act of sharing that even one time she a matter of factly stated her areas of expertise in response to a student who nonchalantly inquired about her library of books as seen from the learner's video/webcam. Even stating so was perfectly done in context since this response happened in one session which Nellie devoted to facilitate a topic about online language  teaching and learning at WizIQ, and using other online tools and resources.


Connecting with learners is about Nellie revealing her personality as teacher and as a lifelong learner, including her beliefs about teaching and learning online through her online classes: “What is the common goal? It's learning English and not just listen to English but to actually speak it, live it and enjoy it!”. Her manner creates a safe, warm and fun atmosphere for learners to comfortably be who they are, share their views or experiences and even disclose their reflections about themselves as English speakers and language learners. Because Nellie comes across as a person whose curiosity is well meaning then learners equally build rapport with each other through the chatbox by typing their simple 'hi's' or 'hello's' and using the same questions to learn more about each others' backgrounds. Learners naturally respond to sharing their views and experiences due to the topics selected by Nellie which make functional, practical as well as personal use of language. Connecting with online learners all seem to be about taking actions which are grounded on the values of sincerity, sharing and trustbuilding. To my mind, these are the key ingredients which make for learners to equally engage in language use to share about themselves. Hence, communication in Nellie's class is not just about speaking English but even more about communicative acts toward building online identity and connections for all participants. And communication through the tools of technology become the primary vehicle to do just that.