Learning
The progression begins upon interest is instilled in students; creative and appealing activities must be offered to them, and a sense of curiosity guides their attention. Learning is the progression of climbing steps on a staircase which has direct ways to “the top” and detours with important information about how to get “there”.
Humans learn through experience and through doing, through understanding the relationship between what is being learned and real life. Particularly in ESL, authentic materials and real world activities are important in this aspect; learners acquire what they understand and what they can actually use. Also, students learn from each other, from their peers’ responses, and from their meaning negotiation in real world activities.
Teaching
As for SLT, the Ten Principles formulated by Ellis (2008) are an excellent guide; I myself am getting used to employing all of them in my classes. Learners must receive plenty of input before using the language, and therefore, I prepare plenty of warm up activities before the students can use what I’m attempting to teach them. Therefore, reading and listening are two ways of introducing learners to new language, strategies for reading and for listening are employed and there is a lot of interaction between the students and myself. Conclusions about the uses of language rise and complete explanation is given.
Once this introductory stage is covered, like in a chained process, we proceed to drill, to practice, and to expand the use of new bits of language into other contexts and situations, through exercises prepared by myself or proposed by their course books. At this stage, students cover a couple of exercises; first, in a silent way, and then in pair work, so that they can share what they have understood and what the correct vocabulary or forms are needed.
The next step is to provide them with previously prepared speech activities in which they negotiate meaning through the use of the bits of language in study. These activities can take the forms of small talks, short presentations, or debates within each pair or group. I do not allow large groups, as the opportunities to speak decrease with large groups. A good number is maximum 4 people. Speech correction takes place here.
As I understand that what has been done in a single class is caught by the learners’ short memory, homework is assigned to make them relive the class: workbook exercises and a writing task.
Regular quizzes are given for the learners to recycle learned material, as well as formal tests, and both types of assessment are feedbacked.
Goals about learners
The practices that have been summarized above represent my goals about the students’ learning:
· Students’ clear understanding of meaning and form of the English language;
· Their clear understanding of use;
· Their mechanization of new bits of language;
· Provision of interaction opportunities to use it;
· Provision of opportunities to recycle knowledge;
· Opportunities to use the language in real world activities.
Method
We can conclude then, that the method employed in my classes belongs to Communicative Language Teaching, as it employs communication as the way for understanding and sharing knowledge for one thing, and more importantly, as a vehicle to function in the real world as well. Communication is established through three types of interaction: teacher-students, pair work, and group work. I make use of the English-only policy in class: there are many things about students’ personal lives which they wish to communicate to other classmates who follow the same studies; these are real world situations that they must take advantage of in their second language learning. Also, questions to the teacher about opinions about Colombian life or personal things, or even excuses for absences to class must be carried out in English, for the same reason.
As for evaluation, I find different types of assessment exercises, which learners are familiar with, and which attempt at evaluating the four skills and the three systems of the language. Term assessments have: reading and listening comprehension questions, writing and speaking tasks –pair work and teacher-student, grammar and vocabulary focused questions. The assessment aim is to gather the information and practices carried out in class and homework activities; assessment must represent what has been learned but also, what has been done in class.
Professional growth
Professional growth
Before doing this master’s program in English Language Teaching, I usually attend ELT conferences, symposiums, seminars, and workshops organized by my faculty, and am constantly reading in English to perfect my performance in the language.
These are my work premises as a teacher:
These are my work premises as a teacher:
- Punctuality
- Class preparation
- Out-of-class attention to students
- Use of different teaching aids
- Technology to strengthen teaching and learning
- Student-centered approach
- Task-based approach
- Teaching and learning with objectives and evaluation criteria
- Constant learning and performance check to each student