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.
That sounds difficult... If a student is focusing on producing an accurate answer, does giving them more time help or hinder them? You seem to conclude that it didn't really help her.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think would help her to produce fluent sentences instead of aiming for accuracy? Or is this a character trait rather than something that can be taught?
Even if you have more experience teaching it's good to do the prep... And I think even the more experienced among us are going back to basics with this course, anyway. Certainly plenty of prep needed over here!
I think this may be a case of the student assuming teacher's intent is purely pedagogical and not sincerely communicative. Maybe Ella if you aimed to personalize the topic more for your student, and developed your lesson into more of a real conversation in which sometoimes the activities from the textbook occurred, your Student might eventually begin to respond communicatively..? That is certainly what has to happen down the road if she is going to make any progress.
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