Second Language Learning
Reflection on a Lesson
New Interchange Student Book Activity: Imagining a different past
1. What specific class were you teaching?
I was teaching a level 8 class. The specific grammar point that I was teaching was ‘imagining a different past’. This was done by using the verb structure ‘I would have + past participle’ and ‘you should have + past participle’. There were 10 students in the class and their English was good. They were mostly older students with two young boys about 16 years old. Two or three of the students were a bit talkative.
2. What exactly was being taught?
(What was your teaching goal or objective?)
My teaching goal was to have the students talking about various situations and then imagining these situations from another perspective. This meant they had to imagine a different past. The objectives were to use certain grammar which showed they were imagining or trying to change the past.
3. Describe the environment and setting you were in.
(When and where did the event occur? To what extent did the setting contribute to the success or less successful lesson?)
This class was on a Tuesday evening in a rectangle shaped room with windows on the shorter walls. There was a long whiteboard along one longer wall and the students sat along the other wall. The classrooms are a bit of a funny shape and there was not much to see from the windows, a car park one side and toilets from the other. I would say it is not the most relaxing situation/place. To add to this the air conditioning was broken so the students were very hot. I think the students were not so bothered about the classroom but were annoyed with the air conditioning. For myself, I was aware that the students kept talking about the temperature and this kept taking their minds off the lesson.
4. How was the material actually presented?
(What was actually done, how was it done, and why is it interpreted as successful?)
The material was presented in a more grammar based lesson. The students had to understand the structure and also understand that they were imagining different past. This was a past that did not happen. For this, I had to do a lot of concept checking questions. I gave them a lot of examples and made them give me a lot also. This made way for a lot time to help them with their grammar. I gave them a few sheets where they had to fill in the gaps. I certainly gave them enough information to formulate an idea on changing the past. At the end, I gave them a story about a shipwrecked man and they had to explain what he did wrong. This gave them a freer practice. At this time I recognized how well they had demonstrated their knowledge of the lesson.
5. How did you, the instructor, know whether students had learned the material to the expected level of performance? How did the students know?
(How was achievement tested/evaluated/ assessed and measured against the goal?)
I did an exercise at the end of the class and got them to figure out a problem that I set. It was about a man who had got lost at sea and found himself on a desert island. A group of students starting writing in the present and I said to them that we were imagining a different past. Once I said this they understood and started writing as they were supposed to. I did not need to tell them more. I looked at their sentences and apart from some little grammar points it was fine. They also asked me for some clarification which was only to say that is fine. I went around each group and highlighted the points are noticed were not easy to understand. The students gave me some bright answers.
6. What did you learn as a teaching instructor from this experience?
(Why does this particular example stand out in your memory?)
I learnt that students can appreciate grammar if it is done correctly. I feel this was a grammar lesson and they were asking a lot of question for clarification. I was pleased I asked a lot of concept checking questions. This I felt gave the students the idea to ask me for clarification. There was also the case of the students being able to say the words together for example ‘you shouldn’t have done that’. For English speaking people, this can roll off the tongue but for my students it was hard. I was pleased I helped them in this respect.
7. Is there a “big lesson” here or a general principle about effective teaching and learning that your example illustrates? Can you summarize it?
(How would you explain this insight to a new instructor who is not in your discipline?)
I would say that students need to be tested. They also need lots of examples for clarification. They also need to be heard, not only speaking but also speaking the target language.
8. What did you like about he lesson (and WHY?)
I like the way that I got the objective of the lesson over. I did a lot of concept checking questions that nearly all the students answered correctly. This made me move on with the lesson at a certain pace. I felt I kept them busy.
9. How would you change the lesson (and WHY?)
There were two students in the class who loved to talk. Even though it is good to talk English in class, these students were taking valuable time of my lesson and handing the other students less time to understand fully what the lesson was about.
I have to agree with one of the points Barry raised in our meeting which was asking students randomly for answers. I asked them in a line at times, this made some switch off and not listen. I have since tried asking random students other lessons and seen the benefit of doing it this way. I must agree that it keeps the students on their toes and lets the students realize that it could be them next which means they should be prepared.
10. What I would do differently next time?
I would change the final use stage as I felt it only made them create sentences not actually talking. The students got up and said their sentences which were fine as they were but this did not lead onto to any further discussion. I feel as though the use stage should allow the students to comment on other students’ work which can lead to the other students commenting further. I would have liked to have them comment on the other group’s ideas. I could have written up a form for them to write the other group’s ideas. I think also a role-play where you have an agony aunt ‘phone in’ that people discuss their problems could have been better. I mean everyone has something to say about people’s problems.
SIT TESOL Certificate Course
Lesson from the Classroom
Essay #3
(1193 words)
I would first like to say that I have enjoyed this last month immensely while learning a great deal of new material. I feel as though I have further recognized, with the help of the SIT course, what the teacher’s role is in the class, as much as the student’s role. I have learned not only about the teaching side, but also the manner/presence of the teacher in the classroom.
I have taught four-practice lessons so far since starting the course, and I have been trying to become more student-centered while challenging them also. I am more aware now that in the class everyone is equal. I am also aware that the teacher is there to help the students and to facilitate their learning and not lecture. This is why I have tried to focus on each student and recognize the weaker ones. There are various levels of students in the class and also different characters. I realize after doing this course to value every one of them.
I have also valued constructed criticism. One issue in mind was my voice and my delivery of speech during class. During some practice lessons, I have modeled some stories in the class and they have become a bit disjointed, by this I mean incomplete sentences. I am glad the instructors recognized this in me and I think I have tried dealing with it but I would still like to continue to work on it. Likewise, I am pleased that there were a lot of positive points from the instructors, namely my strengths in eliciting questions, answers, and information from the students as well as getting a more student-centered class. I feel as though my fourth practice teaching gave me this experience to adapt to what I had been taught. One case in point is, I had the students in two groups, then four groups, and then pairs all the time monitoring and eliciting. I think this made for a great lesson as long as there was a purpose to do this.
I also watched some of my peers from the course that gave me a great insight into what it is like to be a new ESL teacher. Some of the teachers, because they were absolute beginners, showed some telltale signs of teaching infancy, which was interesting and fascinating to watch. The best example would be talking too much during the class. I guess even more experienced teachers can still fall into that habit. But all the same, it makes a new teacher think that they may do it without thinking.
I think this course has made me see both sides of the classroom from the teachers’ and the students’ perspectives. I have definitely become more aware of how much effort and time the students need to put into a class to get any benefit out. I would like to use my German class as an example. I was an absolute beginner and found the lesson a little challenging. It made me think about how the students in my English class must feel. We have had many practice lessons like the German class where we (SIT Students) had lessons given to us (sometimes as imaginary students). One thing, I took from these was that they were interesting and kept me attentive. It made me feel that if the teacher loses the students’ interest the lesson is so much harder. I think that keeping the students’ interests includes recognizing their learning styles as well. For example, I am the sort of student who likes learning by doing. I cannot sit for long periods. I think Thai students are a bit like this as I have found if there is a game in the lesson, they love moving about. I remember one of Anna’s lessons. She had some slips of paper on her desk at the front. Two groups had to come up to the desk one from each group at a time and take a slip of paper. They then had to take it back to their group and read it out and try and guess the movie. This kinesthetic activity got the students excited and maybe more prone to learning. I think it worked well and showed how some students prefer learning. This is why it was interesting having these practice lessons because we could find out about students’ learning. The classes for the practice session I found were very mixed. We had students from many backgrounds. There were people from Korea, Japan, and Mexico. All of them had their reasons for studying English. It made for a range of styles and backgrounds to work on which I think is very helpful, especially for new teachers.
I have found over the course that I have come to focus more on being a facilitator to the students. I have started concentrating more on my lessons and what the students will get out of my teaching. I feel as though I want every lesson for the students to leave with knowing that bit more than they did before. I have also come to believe that the students need challenges. I think the students like that and anything less would not be just. I saw one lesson by another peer in our group whose delivery was excellent with added humor. I felt he had prepared and wanted to teach us (students for his lesson). It made me realize that if the students recognize that you are serious they will be as well.
I think also the ESL instructors have shown that they can make a hard job look easy. One trainer actually gave a lesson on how to give instructions. After the lesson, I realized that some teachers make their jobs so much harder by talking too much. Furthermore, I have come to realize that the teacher must do their job, but it is the students who need the practice in speaking not you, the teacher. I believe clear instructions that are based on an interesting lesson that challenges the students will work. I also have liked the feedback session. There have been times when I thought things did not go very well but the instructors always remained very positive. I think it made me think that there are always more positives than negatives and if anything you should just be constructive. Most of the practice lessons I saw, mine included, needed some work on but the feedback was always positive and constructive. Even things that didn’t go well can be positive as long as the teacher learns from the experience.
The question I am left with is where do I find more information to continue where I left off. This course has sent me on the right path. It has given more a lot of information that has expanded my teaching knowledge. It is now my goal to continue this. First of all, I would like to keep everything fresh in my mind so this means continuing to read books and articles because I am sure I can refer back to this course. I would also like in the future to be more fully qualified in teaching.
SIT TESOL CERTIFICATE COURSE – Focus on Learning
Referring to my first language learning experience as a supposed language student, I had a few times when I was not really involved and missed a few points, but why did I miss these few points? Maybe it was because I am that type of learner who does not get into a lesson straight away. Suddenly your SIT trainer says, ‘right let’s learn German’ and you are like, ‘okay, if you want’. The same as when your teacher could say let’s learn ‘modals’ and you like ‘we learned that last week’. The point is, it is still valid and a learning experience.
There were some people and me especially at that time where the visual experience of watching other people was enough, I was not ready to join in. I did not know at the time if this was a mistake or not. I must admit I found it a little boring to start. I think that some learners could find this experience a little embarrassing, suddenly speaking this new language. Maybe I did find it weird, so I enjoyed just sitting back and seeing others do the talking which some proudly did.
On the flip side, to this experience, I had many times when I sailed through everything because I did the work that the SIT trainer told me to do. I said the sentence she asked and I wrote things down. I think by this time I had got over the first language hurdle and maybe felt a bit at ease, also I got some of the questions right that boosted my confidence and thus I got the benefit out of the lesson which made me happier. I suppose for a language learner it is hard to be attentive all the time and at times the students would just prefer to be looking at the class happening and not playing an active part. Motivation is hard at times.
With reference to the ‘Learners Are Individuals’ handout I have read, It alludes to this point that there are many different styles of learning. You can not have a class of 20 students all with exactly the same way of learning. Some students know grammar better, some are more confident in speaking, some want to write all the facts and some just in the class to have fun. I empathize with some of these points as I sometimes hear my peers talk about, and they have a lot more to say or they explain a point better than the way you thought. My reaction to this is that we are all the class together, and it should be a shared experience. If you have this shared experience I think it will make for a better atmosphere, general variety of ideas, and the class feeling that they all worked as a group. I think that everyone should benefit from everyone although there are some students more salient. Hopefully, they do not take over.
I think this learning experience gives me a broader perspective to look at the fact that there are many elements to a learning classroom experience and what I take from being a learner is to try and apply what I have learned as a student to the classroom. I think what I have done will influence my teaching by realizing that students find learning difficult as much as I did. I will find in the class some students are better than others where I will have to help the weaker students and not let the others go too far ahead. For example, I found the German language learning experience enjoyable because I was working with other students and listening to them say the words. I actually found it funny at times. This I think it is great that you can have a group of people working together learning from each other. Group work is definitely a plus. My final point is not to give them too much information; I found from my German class that it should be taken stage by stage. I think if you provide sufficient information and do not baffle the students with too much, the lesson will go better. What you are left with is a feeling that you can empathize with the students’ needs and thus you will be able to bring that extra dimension that will help the students to achieve.
An example would be SIT trainer’s class on ‘problems and advice’. The step-by-step process using PPU (presentation/practice/use) allowed the students to learn about giving advice. The SIT trainer gave a real experience to start with, she explained that her clothes were old and she did not have enough money to buy new ones. She acted this out and it made you really feel for her. It made for some good advice from the students. As a learner, you were already getting into the lesson. This method was very easily done and the students had a lot of advice for her. She did the same for her tax problem where she did not have enough money to pay the tax man. The advice given was attached with modals. Now, we had to distinguish between serious and not serious which led to looking at the modals. This was a good introduction to the start of the class and I think the process got everybody thinking. These were real problems that I think everybody had had before, so her method was a good way of presenting the subject. I think, as a learner if the lesson relates to something the class knows it will work. She also had cards with problems on them for us to judge if they were serious or not serious. I guess this was a more practice situation. The SIT trainer was trying to see if we knew serious and not serious. This was another way to clarify what we were learning about. As a student, I felt I was much clearer with the subject. I think this method of clarification helps all individual members of the group who are all of the different aptitudes. We worked as a group with the SIT trainer making sure everybody had a chance and I felt as though the group moved along nicely. We had pair work trying to match problems with advice on the worksheet. In pairs was a great way to get the students together. I like the pair work as a learner because we can help each other. Finally, we had a chance to do group work and speak to all the students. This varied structure and interesting parts made for a better class. I think if I were that ESL student the class would have instilled that knowledge of giving advice because of the systematic way of keeping the students attentive with varying teaching techniques.
What Makes a Good Language Lesson?
Notes on a Lecture by Professor Jack C Richards
Reflection on an Article
(590 words)
My initial reaction to this article was to think I had heard this before and read it also in a book. I think the issue is though, as a teacher if you miss some points in your lesson then all that reading /listening was not worth the effort. I think that Professor Richard raises some valid points that I hope by talking about them raises my awareness that bit more.
I have to agree with Professor Richards, this is a focus of mine as well, and that is the ‘focus on the learners’ in the classroom and their acquisition of a new language. I know in a class of twenty students there will be students that are more extroverted and introverted. I think it is right, bearing the students’ learning in mind, that the teacher must ‘allow the learner’s perspective to be their constant focus of attention’. I think for a teacher, it can be easy to teach a lesson but if you have not made sure that the students have learned all that you gave them it is not of any value. I think by involving all the class you can get a better perspective where you can improve yourself and help all students more in the class. Professor Richard alludes to this by saying: ‘teachers need to change students seating positions on regular basis and teach lesson from different location’. I have heard the word ‘comfort zone’, and I think this is what it means by getting the students to realize the reason for coming to an English language class. It is true that the students do like to sit with their friends and sometimes make the class a social experience, not a learning experience.
Another fact I think is valuable and that is the ‘goals of the lesson’. This goes along with the clearly written lesson plan. If there are clear objectives and the teacher makes sure the students are achieving them the teacher will have the students’ attention. Professor Richards says for successful lessons, ‘goals and activities are clear and students are occupied for a large portion of the lesson’. I think by doing this, the lesson will give the students as Professor Richards says, ‘a sense that they are actually capable of learning to speak English’. This means that activities given to the students are achievable. Also, I think the end result is as much value as the during/middle part. The result is what the students leave the classroom with. The teacher hopes and I think every teacher should strive for is that the students should, ‘be able to do something in English that they couldn’t do as well before’. This means the teacher’s lesson must be something that the students can, ‘retain and use and which is lasting value’. I think this is one of the main issues for a teacher which is to be able to successfully finish a lesson where all the students have learned something and achieved. This is an issue that affects me, as I like to focus on challenging the students.
I like this article because it is another way of reinforcing what the teacher knows but sometimes forget. I would have liked to have listened to the whole lecture though and not just these summaries.
SIT TESOL – Extended Reflection on Classroom Practice
Lesson #2
(words 1238)
As usual, I think the lesson was done competently without having much to quibble about. I felt as though I tested the students, which gave me some satisfaction. The lesson that I gave had a purpose and there were objectives to be met, which I think were achievable and a little challenging. Making the lesson challenging was a focus from my previous lesson so I think I took my action points, that I had written in my lesson plan, onboard. I must say though, as always, there are some details regarding the teaching in the class to work on. The details I would like to raise in this reflection are to make me realize some of the reasons for doing certain methods of teaching in class, which I hope after this reflection, will make the lesson more rewarding for the students.
One of my main focuses this time was to make the lesson more challenging for the students, as they were at a higher level. The part of the lesson that I think the students were challenged, was the listening section that certainly gave the students a chance to test their skills. What the students had to do was to listen to a tape with two men talking about their university schedules. Prior to starting the exercise, I had the students get into groups of seven, which I believe made for a better learning experience, where their peers could discuss the answers with them after each listening of the tape. The listening experience was also facilitated with modeling of how to finish the exercise. This worked well because I showed them a model schedule and also wrote the schedule on the board thus I felt the students had a complete understanding. I also made sure I asked concept-checking questions to some of the students about what to complete on the schedule, so I felt as though they were completely ready to listen to the tape. I think I this process is done every time I should not have any problems with listening.
The tape was about two minutes long, which I thought worked fine. I think if it was any longer would have prolonged the listening too far and likewise shorter would not challenge the students enough. I say this because in the previous lesson, which another teacher took before me, the students had listened to a tape and I felt as though it went on too long which was about 4 minutes. That time I saw the students losing interest, which is hard if you have to play it twice or three times. I think with my tape the students needed to listen two times such that once they had listened the second time they were fine and had completed the exercise. I must say though there were a few students that didn’t finish the task completely, so I think this told me that I tested some students. I mean if all the students had finished the first time I would have known for sure that it was easy, but the second play and some students not entirely finishing gave me a feeling of how I was testing them. There was one issue that I think did hinder the proceeding though, and that is, I should have given the students some time to check their answers the first time after listening to the tape. I think there were some students who were a little confused about the answers and needed that checking time to ask their peers. Also, I had put them into groups, which would have made them be able to converse and to understand better so maybe I missed a good opportunity to let the students think about their answers. I think in consequent classes I should go around the group asking and provoking thought and trying to get the student in the groups to say what they wrote down as to generate student talking in English.
I think again I could have challenged the students a bit more. There are points in the class after I finished explaining where I think that all the students understand but I cannot be really sure because I haven’t checked all the students. I introduced the ‘subjects at university’ and wrote them on the board for example physics, chemistry, and science. I ‘fumped’ the words which was the right idea because I knew some of the words were new to them but as for clearer dictionary definition and reinforcing this definition I am not sure a did this. I think the students kind of knew the words but it would have been nice to have them discuss and at least be able to understand them by trying to talk about them. I think for the level they were it would have not been much trouble to converse about these words. I think a simple exercise like matching the words and definitions could have worked. Also, when I asked the two groups to think of some subjects to go with a major (e.g. major – science / subject studied at university – physics) I didn’t give them a model because one of the majors I gave one group was art and I never really said what branch of arts at university. I could have said fine arts, humanities, and liberal arts.
If I had given liberal arts I could have elicited an example like ‘music’ to the board just to send the students on the right path. My objectives were for the students to learn new words relating to university. This was learned by way of a university schedule that was filled in with these words from the tape after they had listened to it. I think the students achieved their objectives of learning the new words and filling in the schedule as planned. To explain how well these adjectives were achieved I would have to say not entirely. I say this because of some of the actions I did to confirm every student’s knowledge. There were times when simple checking could have confirmed everything to me. I have mentioned one way I could have checked above with the subjects and majors. Also after each listening of the tape, I checked on the students and asks them how they were getting on. If they were hearing the tape, what were they thinking? And also at the end of the final post-exercise, I could have made the students not look at their schedules so much and discuss more. I did find them saying student A: ‘when are you free?’ student B: ‘Friday’ student A: “okay’. This was distinctly different from the tape, which lasted two minutes.
To conclude this reflection, I think I have learned to put more into a lesson. I mean the start where I would be doing the presentation/pre-stage of the lesson is to make sure all the students are well informed before I move on. This means getting the so-called weaker students to prove some understanding. Also in relation to the weaker students is to keep the students in pairs and groups so the better students help those weaker ones. Also, I should give them time to discuss in-between stages. I think there is a lot to be learned at certain stages if only to get the students to sit back and contemplate what they have just been told. This would be done in groups or pairs again.
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