Coherence

From Parmelee Welsh, co-editor

In our educational setting, examples, definitions and explanations of coherence can most commonly be found in a writing textbook; however, in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, coherence appears most commonly in an intellectual context, such as the American Economist or School Psychology Review.  This concept of logical unity is essential for critical thinking in any field, especially for students learning English to prepare for university education. 

Modeling logic in our daily classroom routines can build coherence into every interaction with students. By opening our lessons with clear goals and showing the logical steps to practice those skills, we can show the students a clear, linked purpose for every class.  When we effectively use cohesive transitions within our teaching, the students learn that the connection between ideas is as important as the ideas themselves.  Even ending our classes with clear conclusions and summaries demonstrates that we value logical, intentional coherence in all our thinking, planning and writing.   In “Effectiveness of Lesson Planning:  Factor Analysis,” Panasuk and Todd (2005) state, “Planning a lesson involves teachers’ purposeful efforts in developing a coherent system of activities that facilitates the evolution of students’ cognitive structures.” Through reflective teaching, Lorie Wood demonstrates how we can improve day-to-day classroom activities and lessons by being thoughtful and implementing purposeful introductions, transitions and conclusions.

Furthermore, valuing unity throughout our program builds coherence. Our scaffolded curriculum emphasizes a clear progression of skills through each level.  To further highlight this unity, the IEC Canvas course templates deliver each course in similar formats, so students interface with content consistently and clearly.  In addition to the template courses, effective assessments build coherence by reflecting the Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs).  Olivia Livneh expands on this cohesion by discussing how to vet, create and evaluate test questions.

The authors in this issue have found even more applications of coherence to our teaching practice. By not isolating English language learning to the classroom, Kendra Stanley explains how students can experience coherence through social justice education.  Luke Coffelt provides a review of a presentation on student engagement from CoTESOL.  Reporting on a current resource, Matt Morley demonstrates how speech to text technology can build students’ speaking self-awareness.  In an interview, Ruth Moore discusses how to maintain coherence while co-authoring and publishing. Looking over his career, Larry Fisher finds coherence in the glory days, both then and now.  Finally, Tom Germain and Agnes Farkas Roszell write a tribute to Larry Fischer commemorating his 43 years with the IEC and his remarkable contributions to CoTESOL.

Speaking of tributes, our center operates as a unified whole due to the congenial and collegial collaboration of all the faculty and staff to support and care for each other and the students.  I recognize the value of each individual and thank them for how they have uniquely enriched and deepened our working relationships.  Specifically, I offer my highest praise and thanks to Lorie, as this is the last issue that she will be co-editing—her expertise and teamwork are invaluable in writing and publishing this faculty journal. Coherence, therefore, influences many aspects of our center personally, professionally and programmatically. 

 

Practice & Pedagogy

Using Reflective Teaching to Develop Lesson Coherence and Provide Professional Development

Coherence has two meanings that are especially applicable in the language learning classroom– 1) the quality of being logical and consistent, and 2) the quality of forming a unified whole ( Oxford Dictionaries Online ). Most students desire nothing more than having classes that present content logically and maintain consistency...

Social Justice Education in the ESL/EFL Classroom: Unifying Language Learning and Empathy

Social justice is defined as “a philosophy, an approach, and actions that embody treating all people with fairness, respect, dignity, and generosity” (Nieto & Bode, 2008). Incorporating social justice education (SJE) activities into the EFL/ESL classroom increases students’ interest in real-world issues and helps them understand the authentic linguistic context...

Creating Valid Classroom Assessments that Align with Learning Outcomes

English language educators create and adapt tests continuously throughout their careers, but often assessment can be an afterthought in course design. Bachman and Palmer write that assessment developers must be held accountable for the tests they create, because those tests affect stakeholders in significant ways (2010). For example, tests can...

Reviews & Resources

Tips to Increase Learner Engagement: A Reflective Review

The annual CoTESOL Convention brings a number of respected members of the TESOL field to speak on issues that are both timely and critical. One such speaker, Michael Rost, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkley, presented a plenary lecture titled “Top Ten Tips to Increase Learner Engagement.” In...

Google Docs Speech-to-Text: Observations and Updates

There is a mutual relationship between the advancement of technology and the ongoing evolution of language. Technology shapes how we communicate with one another, and language itself informs and inspires developers to create human-like input and output of linguistic data. Due to this interplay and the ubiquitous presence of technology...

Trends & Insights

Maintaining Coherence while Co-authoring: an interview with Ruth Moore

“Writing is a solitary occupation,” except when embarking on a co-authored project. Organizing one person’s ideas is difficult enough, but when there are multiple contributors, how does the writing process change to account for stylistic differences, yet still maintain coherence or logical unity? To explore this question, Ruth Moore shares...

The Glory Days

As I approach retirement, I’m frequently asked, “What were the glory days of the IEC?” The fog of memory has a way of glorifying the “good ole days” so now there are many, but of those some stand out even more than others. I remember my first Peace Corps teaching...

Tributes to Larry Fisher

As we all know, Larry Fisher is retiring. Not only is he saying “until next time” to the IEC, where he has taught and worked for more than 40 years, but also Larry is stepping down from his position as Executive Secretary of CoTESOL. In honor of his many years...