Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
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Reaction Essay on “Peer vs. Teacher Corrective Feedback and its Effect on Grammar” by Miren Garcia Iriarte
The role of Corrective Feedback (CF) in second language teaching and learning is important as a tool to learn English as a foreign language (EFL) (Bitchener, 2008).
I believe that when it comes to correcting errors of learners, feedback is really crucial in second language (L2) learning and language pedagogy. I agree with the concept that in both structural and communicative approaches to language teaching, feedback can be viewed as a means of fostering learners’ motivation and ensuring linguistic accuracy.
I strongly agree that students will benefit from both giving and receiving feedback either from peers or from teachers. To the said study above by Iriarte, peer pressure could this way turn into a positive asset that could benefit the learning process in language, however, I also believe that through an accurate and timely feedback from teachers, learners can also have an environment that supports a growth mind-set.
The role of peer and teacher feedback should be a collective effort in improving learners’ accuracy in grammar and increasing their motivation in learning English language effectively. There can be changes on the effectiveness of both sources of feedback, but as stated in the study, possible reasons for this change are the influence of personal and contextual factors of the learners. Like Dekeyser (1993) stated, CF can interact with learner characteristics and contextual circumstances. I think and I believe that the best possible solution for these reasons is the role of a teacher as a motivator and a facilitator. As teachers correct the errors of his learners, it should be in a way that learning the language is in the students’ interests at heart. Correcting them should only be done in situations that allow them to grow as language learners. On the other hand teacher as a facilitator in peer error correction should guide and scaffold his students first with enough knowledge and practices in using English language before letting them be the in charge of correcting their peers to learn collaboratively and productively.
The Small Key by Paz Latorena
“Love is indeed a journey where two hearts is in the process of change and discovery. “
#Love is a Journey
BRIEF SUMMARY
It is a story about a woman named Soledad who has a husband named Pedro Buhay. They lived in hut within a farm/rural area. Even though they have an abundant harvest in their farm, Soledad had a discontentment in it.
One day, Soledad decided to mend some of the shirts of his husband which were in a locked trunk. Pedro finds the key on his pocket and he found two keys, the big and shiny key and the small and old, rusty key. Pedro took those keys from his pocket and gave the large key to Soledad. He put the small key back to his pocket and here starts all the doubts and pain from Soledad.
One hot morning, Pedro decided to take off his jacket before going to work. This jacket is where he put the small, and old rusty key. Soledad was folding clothes that time and when Pedro was gone for work, she saw the jacket. She got it and when she was about to fold it, the small key fell to the floor and it caught her attention.
Soledad discovered an old trunk which contained the clothes of Pedro’s first wife who passed a away long ago. She already knew that the small key is for this small and old trunk. Knowing that his husband was keeping this key for a long time, Soledad got to over think things, she got paranoid, she tried to not bother herself about it but she kept on thinking how it threatens to cut the bond of their relationship. With doubts and bad feeling, she ended up opening it. After work, Pedro went home and he found Soledad lying in bed with fever. He took care of his wife all night until the doctor arrived but said that Soledad is fine and she just needs a rest. Next morning when Pedro was chunking woods in the backyard, he discovered a pile of ashes and half burnt clothes in there. He had a bad feeling about this so he rushed to look for the old trunk and confirmed what Soledad did. Pedro was angry at that time but he just controls himself and just thinks that someday Soledad will say sorry to him, that he would forgive her because he loves her, and that they can reconcile after but he knew, he would always resent her for it.
REFLECTION
In this short story, I realized that love can be all or nothing. If it is all love, we can give all trust and all chances for an open and healthy communication, if it is all love, we can sacrifice everything without any condition otherwise love will be nothing if we keep on clinging to our past memories that hinder us to live truly in the present. Love is a journey, we cannot move towards our final destination if we keep on going back to the past.
I learned that in journey of love, it requires building full trust and communication with your partner. Trust and communication is the key to strengthen the bond of relationship between couples. Once a person is committed and genuinely loves his partner, he should have an open and healthy communication with his loved one so with that, full trust is given leading to reconciliation.
One thing I’ve realized is that being committed takes a lot of sacrifices. There is no perfect relationship. Every couple comes with misunderstandings or marital problems but what matters most is how they handle those kinds of situations in their committed life.
I’ve also realized that locking up yourself from the past is not good because most of the time it prevents you from moving forward. I learned that once I let go of the past, I must also let go of the feelings in that memory because it can control my present. I realized that if a person let his mind consumed by the past, he is just existing in the present but not truly living his life. Caging himself from the past is preventing himself to be better. In this, I can say that our mind is like a blackboard, we can never write new words on it unless we erase those previous words.
For the readers, this story reminds us the realities of being in a relationship. Being committed must build full trust, communication, and sacrifices out of love. That’s why we must choose a partner who will not just know how to be committed but a person that will never let go of our hands to the rough road situations of our lives.
Love is indeed a journey where two hearts is in the process of change and discovery. As they go on to their destinations, they encounter cross roads and changes in directions, detours are taken and alternative paths were given. There are many rough roads along their way and sometimes they think not to stay but love is indeed one word with four letters, easy to spell and easy to say but it is really hard to explain and understand. No matter how hard the situation is, if two hearts in the journey of love is on the same destination, together, they will conquer all the destruction.
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
- Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
- Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
- Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
- What topics do you think you’ll write about?
- Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
- If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
