ovamethods22007

Observation Report #3: Instruction-giving skills

2009-09-23T13:42:00.000-07:00

Classroom Observation 3

The ability of teaching vocabulary in the language classroom

2009-06-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

It is a hard job to find interesting activities to introduce vocabulary items in the language classroom. Certainly, the teacher's job is to select appropriate material in order to carry out with it. Books in general suggests a number of techniques or proceddures where the teacher can find how to deal with vocabulary.

As regards my own teaching experience I should say that I've been looking for different strategies to introduce vocabulary to my students and I have selected a variety of activities from the book and from others that allows the learners to acquire lexical sets sometimes difficult to understand. Sometimes the course book is no enough so it is necessary to look for other proccedures as regards vocabulary. The book I am working with my students this year is called Adventures Elementary, Oxford University . This book suggests differents techniques to deal with vocabulary. The use of pictures at the beginning of each unit give the learners the opportunity to connect them with their own reality, Then the different sections also shows drawings to show actions or phrases that the learners will apply through

different activities. Decoding messages through symbols is another activity of showing how this book introduces vocabulary: The learners by looking at a symbol that represents different letters decode a word hidden. Matching activities is also another activity that students will develop by using this coursebook. Last but not least, a wide variety of completion exercises such as oguefill in the blanks, use the words in the box to complete a text or mini dialogues, or choose the correct word is what this book offers.

Naturally, this is not enough when you present new vocabulary lexical sets through diagrams or mind maps is also useful to the learners because it allows them to develop their

own knowledge. When recycling new vocabulary presented the use of crosswords and different sources from different books is also relevant in the language classroom: Students need to be exposed to language 2 as many times as posible and the idea of giving them different effective strategies and variety of methods that will help the learners to cope with words, in this case the teacher's job is to encourage students in using them and to introduce some of them through teaching.

Originally posted on July 10, 2008

Sitting in on lessons: report #2

2009-06-11T03:25:00.000-07:00

Here's my second report on a lesson I've sat on:
Lesson Observation2.2009

Sitting in on lessons: report #1

2009-06-11T03:18:00.000-07:00

Here's my first report after observing a lesson:
Lessonobservation1.2009Doc1

Pair work and group work in the communicative classroom

2009-05-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH to language teaching involves the use of language through different communicative tasks. Interaction among learners should be relevant because it provides a basis for language acquisition. Pair work activities give the learners the possibility of communicating, negotiating meaning and keeping conversations through different variety of activities such as reading each other's work or working on a short dialogues or short tasks that allow the learners different opportunities for practising the language. This approach allows the learners work in their own productions and discuss on their own work, depending on the learner's level.

As far as group work is concerned, role play activities as well as different communicative tasks or proyect in which learners work cooperatively as a team, will give them the opportunity to discuss, reflect upon their work as a team, and also share different opinions. Learners need to be motivated enough to carry out differnt communicative tasks. By doing this, it's the teacher's job to select a wide range of activities, select appropriate material, guide students and encouraging contributions in the part of the learners in order to develop a communicative lesson successfully.

(from Learning English in the language classroom, By Tricia Hedge Chapter 2 Question 6 Option a and b)

Facing a new group of students

2009-05-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

When I start teaching a group of adolescents for the first time, I try to make them feel confident with the language by assigning them activities that follow a communicative purpose.
Language must be presented as a tool that links second language with their own world. The idea of introducing themselves for the first time is a good activity to be carried out since they have the opportunity to use second language as well as the use of simple sentences through questions such as: "May I go to....?" or "what's the English for", will encourage the learners to use L2.
As teachers our main aim is to allow learners to become better communicators.

Motivation play a crucial role in the development of the class, since it helps students to lower their affective filter and feel confident with the language. It's the teacher's ability to select different learning strategies in order to encourage the learners to adopt a different attitude towards a second language.

(From Learning English in the language classrrom By Tricia Hedge, Question 2)

The implications for learner training in a language classroom

2008-06-23T03:36:00.000-07:00

When facing a group of self autonomous learners, the teacher has to take into account several things in order to promote Learner training. The teacher's service in this case is to encourage the learners in positive attitudes and prepare them through effective strategies. By encouraging the learners, we mean trying to convince them they are capable of acquaring greater independance through experiences of independant learning, and also giving them the posibilities to exercise their independance.
It's the teacher's job to help this group of learners become independant and confident with the language, so the selection of material and tasks plays and important role in the learning process. Helping students feel confident with the language and create a good atmosphere in the classroom, is necessary to establish and promote successful learning. The selection of activities and material, are necessary for the learners to develop their independence and make them feel conficent to master the language. This last concept also has to do with the selection of useful strategies and techniques.
All things considered, it is important for teachers to be organized when dealing this group of learners, by organizing the lessons and programmes in a way that the learners should feel confident with the language. Having a successful autonomous learners lesson means looking for different and relevant strategies that will help this group of learners to exercise their independance when acquiring a second language.

by Osvaldo Mammino
Source Teaching and learning in the language classroom by Tricia Hedge
Chapter 3 question 2

The role of grammar in a communicative lesson

2008-06-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

The knowledge of grammar in a communicative lesson is essential because learners are ready to develop their own strategies in order to make the role of communication successfully. This means that the student needs to know the rules and how to apply them. Acquisition of grammar in a communicative classroom will probably involve the students to know about grammatical concepts, categories and rules.
Let's take for a moment the use of modals, those are important and also essential in a communicative task because they allow the students to express what they want to say in different ways. This has to do with the attitude of the speaker when using them, so they will be able to express a suggestion, or requesting something or asking permission to do something. Younger learners need to know that the modal verb can, is for sure the one by we can make requests or ask permission to do something (polite or informal), That is to say they need to apply the rule but also try to discover the rule by themselves in order to use them in different situations or context settings.
Modality shows the students how we express things by their own attitudes, and as we said before they show different ways of how people communicate by using a foreign language. It's the teacher duty to motivate students to use these kinds of expressions through different activities, games and tasks.

Developed by Osvaldo
Source: Teaching learning in a language classroom By Tricia Hedge
(Chapter two, points for discussion- question 2)

THE EXPLICIT TEACHING OF GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

2008-05-09T06:10:00.000-07:00

DURING my english lessons I try to concentrate first in the selection of the material for my students. This is crucial as regards teaching, adolescents tend to be bored easily and this is something I take into account before planning a lesson. Basically we need to bear in mind an specific aim we want to show to the learners during our lesson.

As regards grammar, I do not take into account the idea of teaching grammar explicitly since I have to give my students to reflect upon in, trying to let them discover the rule by themselves (deductive grammar) so I try to teach it implicitly rather than explicitly. Activities related to grammar in connection with the topic chosen need to be clearly linked in order to prioritize the aims of the lesson, i.e. the material that the lesson contains is to show the learners the use of the "s" in third person singular, for example, I will try to guide them and make them understand by themselves how to deal with the grammar item, once they have produced their own examples, it is good to make students write or reflect about the rules for understanding third person singular (grammar aims) The selection of relevant activities will guide them about how to apply the rule correctly.

As regards vocabulary the use of visuals is useful when I present a new vocabulary item, where the learners will be ready to produce their own examples. Pictures or concrete material is also relevant to be mentioned as the learners have the opportunity to see and identify the new vocabulary item. The selection of good activities when presenting vocabulary is something we need to put an eye on this since the learners (especially adolescents) tend to be bored when they developed uninteresting actvitities. The idea of setting games in the classroom or group work is also useful since the learners get involved easily in the lesson itself and of course enjoy what they are doing. It is important to mention is the necesary interaction between teacher and learners, If the teacher takes this into account, the lesson will be successful.

Osvaldo

Source: Hedge, Tricia, Teaching and learning in the language classroom OUP (2000)
Points for discussion, Question (4)

Time out, take five How teacher feel when being observed

2008-05-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

When an authority or a colleague of us enters the classroom, we tend to feel nervous and with a bit of anxiety, because most of the teachers (and in general human beings) do not like being observed. This will bring a problem during our lesson, because we are worried to develop our lesson without making mistakes and we forget sometimes the topic of the lesson itself or we give an instruction in a way that our students do not understand, just because we are worried about the observer rather than the lesson and the students.

In my opinion, I think that the idea of being observed is something that teachers need to have in the sense that we share our experience with others and this makes us reflect upon the activity suggested is useful or not. Being observed by our peers is a way of finding solutions or making our classes better than we expected. Making mistakes during our lessons will help us to reflect with our peers what things we need to change in order to develop our classes successful.

My personal profile

2008-04-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
It is a pleasure to me to introduce myself to you. My name is Osvaldo Mammino and I am a Third year student at the liceo Cultural Britanico TTC. I am attending my last two subjects for the secondary level and I am really happy to know that this course of studies is about to come to an end. Of course studying a second language like English or any other language is " a never ending story", since there are new methods in language teaching, courses to attend and other things that it will be necessary for us to take if we want to be updated.
Hopefully the group we are attending "Talller......." is really great since I know all the girls who are attending the course.
Hope we'll have a wonderful year to all of you! (Including our teacher of course, ja ja)
Regards
Osvaldo

P.S. I would like anybody of you to teach me how to publish a photograph of myself since I donot know how to handle with it

Teaching in a service training

2007-05-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

I was invited for a group of graduate teachers to be a menber of the staff of a service training, teaching mainly in companies. I got surprised the other day when I opened up my E- mail box and found a message telling that I've been chosen to be a menber of the group of teachers. So the following day I went there for an interview with Peter Harrison, a teacher whom I met in a course in English business and management two years ago. While I was waiting for Peter there was a notice on a board showing the most important qualities that a teacher needs to have to work for this kind of service. There was also a sign at the end of the notice that said "any suggestions you'd like to add?" and I wondered myself of a list of thing a teacher needs to have, and here are some quotations I'd like to share with you:
- a teacher needs to be/have
- tolerant and patient
- handle the class dynamic
- Allow students to communicate themselves
- Allow students to feel confident with the language
- Tolerant to errors
- Grade the task according to the students interests and needs
- promote discovery learning
- Select appropriate material to students
- Help the learners to contrust their own knowledge
- Provide the students all the necessary tools to manage with the language
- select relevant activities to them
These items I thought are the ones that accompany my every day life when teaching. To me , a good teacher needs to have this quealities, and the most important thing: we teachers needs to have the capacity of believing that we are not God, we do not have the capacity of knowing everything, this will help us to grow with our students, to see what you need to adjust in your classes, according to our students interests and needs. All of these things are "in your hands" because I'm the one who thinks that everything is posible if you want it, so let's work on that.
From Teaching and learning........ By tricia Hedge
(Discussion topic item 5)

Teaching adolescents for the first time

2007-05-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

TEACHING adolescents is not an easy task to be carried out. It is also difficult for us, as teachers, when we meet them for the very first time: Your body shivers and you start trembling for a second till the moment you come "on stage". The first thing the teacher has to do when facing a group for the very first time is to share some of the experience with them, telling them what they are going to do over the year, and some interesting things that they would like to do. It is useful the use of a class survey with a questionnaire guide by which you can include those things (or relevant ones) they would like to do with you during the year course of studies. Once you read at home their answers you would have an overall idea about what they WANT and what they NEED to learn. We, as teachers, have to show our students that learning a language is another subject at school they have to take into account. It is also important the selection of relevant material (things that they are accostomed to seeing in everyday life) to show them their own reallia. (Bad habits, for example or sports) so they can work on a proyect based on this topic work. Having said this, I would like to add that adolecsents, like children have to learn a language for a purpose to apply it in everyday life, feeling confident with the topic they are learning, and also our main task is to give them the tools for this to be carried out. Last, but not least, it is important to remark that motivation is essential for them because when students are motivated the process of learning makes easier our every day teaching

From teaching and language.... by tricia hedge
(points for discussion - option 2)

Excuse me, may I come in?

2007-05-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Who I felt when I first observed a lesson? Well, it's a bit difficult to explain. When I arrived at a class, everybody (the students I mean) looked at you as if you were an invader. After the teacher introduces you to the students, things are really different and if you see the expression on your faces, the thing changes. The first thing the observer has to do is to feel confident with the teacher, asking him or her when he or she allows you to come to the class. It's a good thing to write a list of priorities you would like to know before hand such as the number of Ss in the class, the characteristics of the group, fast or slow learners for example, the book they are using, and so on
Having sat at the back of the class, you see how they are sat, the furniture, if the room is lighted enough to make students confortable during the development of the class...and suddenly the class starts. Now the teacher is ready to develop her class, and you are ready to observe the way the teacher handles the lesson, how she/he introduces an activity, grammar pattern or presenting a skill (listening for example). As soon as the class is finished it is important to show the teacher your impressions about the class and it is remarkable to say that you can comment how you felt during the class. The teacher will feel estimulated with your comments and of course this will help them to create new things or new ideas in the class that will allow them to have success in their classes.