Personal Objective

I think I have a lot of faults in my teaching method, techniques, etc. This program has made me become more aware of myself in the classroom. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing anything right, but I don't think I'm totally messing everything up! If I were to choose one apsect of my teaching that I would like to improve on, it would be making the interaction more dialogic. The funny thing is that, in the classes I use a textbook for, my script tends to be more on the monologic side. However, in the classes I do not use a textbook and I'm allowed to plan my own lessons entirely, the script is much more dialogic. I taught that class this past week and I absolutely loved it! Although there were only about four people in the class, I didn't really feel like a teacher in a monologic sense but more like a facilitator of their discussion. I did have to start up the conversation when it died but the students asked each other questions out of true interest and curiosity of what the others had to say.  I want to be able to customize the lessons from the textbook for my classroom and make the interaction more dialogic. I know that my group class is very different from the traditional classroom in Korea. I wonder if it would be possible to make my 1:1 classes (the ones where I use a textbook) have a similar discourse interaction.

Gah! everything's related!

This blog entry isn't a reflection on a class. I just wanted to vent a bit about the Meth paper. So, I thought I was finished with choosing the three CI techniques for the paper. However, the more I think about this, the more confused I get. I thought my classroom interaction was more monologic, but now I'm having second thoughts on it. After this week's class, I'm a little confused about what a dialogic discourse looks like and what a monologic one looks like. Tom did mention that it all depends on the context. So, I need to look over it again to determine what type of discourse? interaction? is prevalent.

Okay... anyways... I think the CI techniques are all related to each other. For example, the F move in IRF plays a part in determining the monologic/dialogic ratio. The types of questions asked also play a part. Questions and IRF can also be used to scaffold. Corrective feedback and content feedback can be used in the F move. My biggest concern is that if/when I talk about the monologic/dialogic ratio in my paper, I won't know where to draw the line on what features to include. I feel like I can go on and on about that because it umbrellas basically everything!

I'm truly sorry if my rambling was confusing. It's a reflection of the current state of my brain. And thanks to those who have spent their precious time reading this piece of writing.

GP 1

SLA WEEK 4 Assignment

Story Telling - GP

 Click on the link to view the video. Or just watch it in the following post.

I think I may have chosen a speaker with too low of a proficiency. He fails to add the -s to the end of the verbs. In the Korean language, "I go to the store.", "He goes to the store.", and "They go to the store." all use the same verb form. No ammendments are needed. Therefore, ELLs at the novice level may have difficulty understanding that verbs in English change in correspondence to the subject. 

I didn't provide any corrections during this activity. If I were to teach this grammar point to a beginner-level class, I could teach it using talking about daily, weekly activities as the content. I'm used to using the PPP cycle. So, first I could present the new information (-s) by trying to elicit the correct form from the students. "What do you do in the morning, Joe?", "Alex, what does Joe do in the morning?". If the student is unable to utter the correct form, I may have to provide the correct form. Or I could ask for the answer from the whole class. After introducing the new language item, I could provide practice by asking individual students questions about their routine and then have them ask each other and report in groups. In the final stage, production, I could use a role-play activity. I could have the students partner up. One person could be a manager for a celebrity and the other person could be a member of a staff for a magazine, newspaper, or TV talk show, who wants to interview the celebrity. The goal of the activity is for them to set on a day and time for the interview. The student playing the role of the manager will have to phrases like "I'm sorry, but he/she exercises in the morning.". After the completion of the task, the students could change roles.

To wait or not to wait...

The goal of today’s lesson was to be able to describe the type of customer service received and to be able to make complaints and ask for assistance at a hotel, restaurant, airplane, etc.

The learner is able to create sentences that are grammatically correct. However, she has difficulty speaking fluently. She thinks too much before she speaks. She wants to speak as perfectly as possible (grammatically) which hinders her fluency.

Taking what I learned from class about CI techniques, I tried to use some techniques. Most of my dialogues were monologic in previous lessons, so I tried to make it more dialogic by asking more opened ended, referential questions that were guided by her answers. However, I found myself going back to the book and following the lesson plan in the teacher’s manual. I think it’s my safety net. I’m still a bit new to teaching so I lack the ability to personalize a lesson on the spot. I need lots of time in advance to prep. Unfortunately, because I’m a freelancer and teacher a wide range of levels, I don’t have the books on me. They’re all at the center. Since I know I need more time to prep, I should make photocopies of the chapters I will be teaching beforehand to get a chance to think about how to personalize it for my student.

I told myself that I would extend the wait time from 1 second to about 3, 4 seconds. Why is silence so awkward in class? Anyways, the extended wait time gave her more time to think of what to say but I think it hindered her fluency. I realized she was using that time to construct full sentences, or parts of, in her head. Maybe I gave her too much time.

Like my other students, she was motivated to learn so she made the effort to use the target language items when answering questions and in role-play activities. She is a fast learner and picks up language pretty quickly. So, by the end of class, she was able to give comments on customer service and make complaints using the language items learned.

I need to wait ...

After starting the STG program, I find myself worrying about how I teach. Am I doing it the right way? Is it effective? How can I make it better? Are they actually learning something? Etc. Yes, I think too much, which makes life a lot more stressful. Unfortunately, the more I reflect and think about my teaching, the less confident I become. For example, I tried to change my lessons by increasing student speaking time. I’m not that talkative, as you can tell (if you’re in my class), but I have a tendency of interrupting my learners. When they make a mistake at the beginning or middle of a sentence, it’s really hard for me to wait until they finish the sentence to make the correction. So, I end up breaking the flow and I try to get them to self-correct or point out the error. Edit: Actually, after thinking about this for a bit more, it doesn't seem like I'm really breaking the flow because the corrections I gave were pretty concise. I didn't explain the reason why the utterance was incorrect or go on about the grammar rules. At times, the learner asked me why he had to use the past simple with 'two years ago'. And, I think I made the explanantion short and simple. Also, I tried to increase wait-time, but I hate the awkward silence or pause. That’s why I have a tendency of giving feedback right away or asking another question. I have a huge problem giving feedback (positive) too soon! Unfortunately, that prohibits students from giving more extended answers. I need to give my learners more time to think. What annoys me is that even though I’m aware of the changes I need to make, I’m unable to actually make those changes.

One of the reasons I enjoy teaching my adult learners is that they’re motivated to learn and practice. They’re not shy about speaking English. They take classes because they want to improve, and I’m pretty sure they pay out of their own pockets. And the classes aren’t cheap, from what I’ve heard. Because they’re motivated, it’s not difficult to get them to speak. As mentioned before, it’s probably my fault that they don’t give extended answers all the time.

One of my ELLs complimented me this week. He told me that my positive feedback gave him more confidence to speak English. He’s much more comfortable using English. He doesn’t know why but for some reason he thinks he’s able to speak better after receiving compliments from me. It made me feel good about myself as a teacher. I was building up his confidence at the very least!

Something I was pondering about. Is it possible to make a one-on-one lesson not teacher dominated?