So I finished my second month of teaching! And my students seem to have benefitted so I'm extra pleased.
This
time round I was given the Basic English level and the
lower-intermediate again. I've made more observations this month, and
here they are!
Ups:
*
My class sizes were smaller this month; I had 7 students in Basic and 9
students in Level 3. This meant I could spend a lot more time reviewing
their work and giving them individual help.
*
A few of my Level 3 students regularly gave me written pieces to look
over (homework I would assign). I really enjoyed giving them input on
their written work and seeing how they express themselves. One of my
favorite assignments is writing a letter to the "Agony Aunt" (ie me!)
and asking for advice.
*
The Basic level does not contain much grammar or difficult vocabulary,
so my students and I had a lot of time to play educational games such as
Spelling Races and Pictionary. They absolutely loved this. Competition
in the classroom is always healthy. Plus, I found that it helped me
target problem spelling areas; for example, there were a few times that
the students thought the /i:/ sound at the end of a word, example
"party", was made by the letter "e" and not "y". So we were able to
identify this problem area and work on it.
*
Thinking of ways to make concepts visual. For example, "what", "who"
and "where" -- I drew stick people next to "who" so that students
understood we use it when asking about people. I drew a little map when
talking about "where".
*
As I said, I had Level 3 again this month so I was prepared for some
tricky questions in the field of the Present Perfect. I was equipped
with more examples that led to more elicitation of grammar and
vocabulary concepts. I felt this resulted in them understanding more the
first time round, rather than half-learning it and then us having to do
several revision hours.
*
I enjoyed building relationships with my students, and them trusting me
to help them. It really is amazing the positive impact these classes
have on these students' lives. And I'm always blown away by the students
who have full-time jobs and families and still manage to do the work I
set them.
Downs:
*
Although the Basic textbook contained no difficult grammar or
vocabulary, I was still disappointed not to have a teacher's guide. I
find that teacher's manuals provide invaluable guidance (especially to
new teachers like myself) on how to introduce words and concepts to
students. What I tried doing was building the lessons on each other. For
example, first we became familiar with greetings, then occupations,
then locations, etc and what I would do is a small review session at the
beginning of each class. I also gave my students some dictation
exercises, to tie in the concepts we had learned (family members, where
we live, where we're from and so on). Drilling was key and so was
repetition.
*
On the third day of my Basic course, I had a near mutiny. My students
started saying how they want to hear Arabic. I stressed that hearing
only English in the classroom is immeasurably beneficial but they begged
to hear some words. I was trying my best to stick to my position but
then one day we were talking about possessive pronouns and just before
the class ended, one of my students said "but 'her' and 'she' are
exchangeable, right?". I knew I had to speak in Arabic, and just a few
words from cleared the confusion.
(I
did some research when I got home. I read how others had my worries -
that my students would get too lazy to listen to the Arabic if they knew
an Arabic explanation or translation was forthcoming. I was also
worried that I'd have to find a balance and it would be more difficult
to find if they got used to me speaking Arabic. One piece of advice was
to explain the commands I'd use in he classroom in L1 and also give the
students phrases they could use; like "how do you say X in English?".
This would increase their confidence. Plus, showing them I understood
who difficult it is for them would make them relax more.
The
next day I boarded up some phrases and explained them in Arabic. For
example, "turn the page", "how do you spell?" and "listen and repeat".
From that point, I could give commands in English knowing they
understood. I also decided to introduce the vocabulary by first allowing
them to look at the pictures and say them in Arabic between themselves
before discussing in English. This was successful. Lastly, I pointed out
some differences in sentence structures between English and Arabic (eg
adj before noun). After doing these things, I immediately had a
responsive classroom and my students were much happier. And a happy
student means he/she will retain the information better.)
*
I noticed that my Basic students wrote the Arabic translation of the
vocab we were learning (eg, book) next to the photo of the item. I think
that this is slightly counterproductive for them, since the photo
already tells them what it is. Writing it in Arabic might just lead to
them trying to remember the translation rather than the photo. So, one
day I brought in a worksheet of body parts (arms, legs, head, etc) and
asked my students to write, in Arabic, what the word sounded like. They
loved this.
*
In terms of Level 3, it took me about 2 weeks to build a rapport with
them. At first, I found some of them to be disruptive, in the sense that
they went off topic at every chance they could. They consistently asked
questions of why they had to do exercises or why I didn't speak Arabic
with them. Getting them to follow instructions was difficult, but I
think that was down to them not knowing my teaching style and me not
adapting it to them. Also, I found them to be too "eager" - barely would
I be through a sentence or question and they'd already have
suggestions. In time though, I gained their trust and they were more
willing to listen.
*
I introduced phonetics to my Level 3 students at the end of the course,
and to be honest, I'm not sure how beneficial it will be since, as they
pointed out to me, Google will read the word out to you anyway -_-
What I will continue doing in my next courses:
*
Timelines, pictures on the board and more exercises to highlight
problem areas. For example, since the start of my current course, I've
boarded up jumbled up sentences on the board and asked the students to
put them in order. Found this to be beneficial because sentence
structure is very complicated for Arabic learners.
*
Speaking English naturally - the urge to simplify or shorten my
sentence has been great but I am ultimately teaching my students how to
correctly express themselves and so have to make sure I am expressing
myself correctly.
What I want to change/adapt:
* More warmers and more educational games.
This month:
I
am teaching Level 3 (again) and Level 2. Looking forward (and so far
enjoying) the challenges of Level 2 (lower-intermediate).
Watch this space for the next reflection!
Sx
PS Here are some websites I found really helpful when thinking about the whole L1/L2 dilemma:
http://www.esl-lounge.com/talking-points-first-language.php
http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/well-balanced-use-l1-in-class.html
http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/why-your-students-speak-l1-in-class.html
http://myenglishpages.com/blog/l1-efl-classes/
