Pragmatism in World Language Classroom

Question: 1. Do you agree with this pragmatic philosophy theory, where activities are the esssence of learning? Yes or No and Why? 2. Is it always possible to connect our curriculum to real-life lessons? How? 3. How difficult would it be to provide our students with this great teaching curriculum theory however; align it to Common Core Standards and testing paradigms? Please explain. Answer: 1. I do agree with the Pragmatic philosophy which states that activities are the actual essence of learning. According to the given scenario, the pragmatic approach encourage the learning sessions by using homogeneous classroom setting where factual activities equip the students to deal with real tasks. Activity or actions forms the core objective Pragmatic philosophy theory. Thus, it is evident that, mental activity is linearly associated to the physical interaction of individuals. Hence, such an attitude enables learning through activities. Moreover, the real-life experiences forms the core of curriculum that is better understood if it is implemented in action (Betz Huth, 2014). As said by Confucius; Forgetting is eventual with teaching; involvement in the lesson is actually related to understanding. Pragmatism prepares the students to flourish in the dynamic world making them perfectly ready to act in practical situations by making them learn through activities. 2. The Philosophy of Pragmatism is student centric approach where teachers are asked to motivate students intrinsically through real-life and factual scenarios. This enables the students to think and relate the learning with the environment around them. Curriculum is connected to the real life experiences by participating in various project and activities that offers factual problems. Moreover, in world language classroom, Multiculturalism plays the key role that can only be attained by students through exploration of real-life experiences of hosting visitors of other cultures within the classroom (Flix-Brasdefer Cohen, 2012). The session of Q A improve the multicultural behaviour between students and remove the cross-cultural barriers. Connecting curriculum with real-life experiences involve watching of authentic videos of diverse countries, ability to identify their customs and language, etc. Students realize their active part they play in learning when curriculum is connected to real-life sessions, through constant practice and group work. Knowledge is the common practice in classroom, whereas alignment of real-life scenario will enable cohesiveness and collaboration. 3. Pragmatic approach to learning signifies a school culture of shared learning classrooms where both the student and teacher have equal contribution in academic and social growth. However, it will be difficult to train students in this significant teaching curriculum and alignment of it into Core standards such as Communication, connections, cultures, comparison and communities (Rafieyan et al.2013). Shared classroom experience is necessary to gain adequate knowledge about other cultures, its comparison to own cultures and integration to individual communities. This becomes difficult due to cross cultural barriers and restrict student practice as a group. Hence, in order to align the teaching curriculum theory with common core standards students must realize the importance of group work, learn to socialize and gain deep knowledge about the other countries, and development of respectful attitude towards other cultures and societies. Alignment of pragmatic teaching curriculum into com mon core standards will be difficult unless collaboration and cohesive practice is encouraged (Sykes, 2013). Cohesive and collaboration will eventually encourage innovative thinking, make efforts to understand the language/problem, and utilize higher order thinking abilities to comprehend the problem. Such an approach will enable the group of learners to act practically during the real-life or factual situations. Reference List Betz, E. M., Huth, T. (2014). Beyond grammar: Teaching interaction in the German language classroom.Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German,47(2), 140-163. Flix-Brasdefer, J. C., Cohen, A. D. (2012). Teaching pragmatics in the foreign language classroom: Grammar as a communicative resource.Hispania,95(4), 650-669. Rafieyan, V., Majid, N. B. A., Eng, L. S. (2013). Relationship between Attitude toward Target Language Culture Instruction and Pragmatic Comprehension Development.English Language Teaching,6(8), p125. Sykes, J. M. (2013). Synchronous CMC and pragmatic development: Effects of oral and written chat.CALICO journal,22(3), 399-431.