Teaching practicum internship program was my
first hand professional teaching experience which was made a positive impact in
my life. This was truly given me confidence and motivation to shape and develop
career aspects and personality in my future endeavor. I knew internship would be a challenge because
we were given the opportunity to practice the theories that we had been
learning for four years in the degree program. My internship experience was unique because I
got the opportunity to teach in two schools, which had two different
contrasting contexts. I taught at Kelani Maha Vidyalaya for a one week and
covered 25 periods. I taught for students in grade 5, 8 and 12 classes. The
first impression that I had received at Kelani Maha vidyalaya; students are not
motivated and concentrated on learning. Then,
I taught at Janadhipathi Balika Vidyalaya, Galle for a three weeks and covered
20 periods. I taught for students in grade 12 and 13. The first impression that
I had received at the school; Students are motivated and concentrated on
learning
I realized planning and
implementing the lessons in the classroom was a real challenge because handling
the students was the greatest issue that I was faced at the very first day at
Kelani Maha Vidyalaya. I noticed that students
were out of controlled and not listen to the lesson and they disturbed to the
whole teaching process. I was determined
by myself that I need to take the control of the class. Consequently, second
day, with the purpose of taking control of the class, I made a few tactics; I implemented
group work through dividing the class into groups and focus their attention on
gaining the victory to own team. Many scholars pointed out about the importance
of group work in the ESL Classroom. According to Burdett (2003) "group work provides
students to work in a team where the teacher may be involved at different
phases and try to balance the rights and control of the work changes toward the
students themselves” (P.2). In order to gain the victory, students need to be
working as a team and being quick in answering the questions. “Group work is
the easiest way of increasing students talk and making the lesson more
effective” [(Parris, 2009)
cited by Ahmed (2013)]
(p.10). I noticed aforementioned method was effective because students started
to pay attention to the lesson. According to the Ahmed (2013), “The main objective of a group work
is to provide help to develop students’ inner quality.” (P.12). I realized that
this strategy of working as a group facilitated Students to know how to work as
a team. Students also understood that
they could develop their communication skills, ability of being self –
directing while working in a group. Students were enthusiastic while doing it.
It was my greatest achievement at the very first week of the internship.
Moreover, in my
teaching sessions, I had to use L1 in giving instructions since there were
occasions where students had not comprehended the instructions. Sometimes, they
had started yelling me, "teacher, in
Sinhala". Consequently, I was agreed with them and was compelled to give
instructions in English and translate the same content into L1. In such
cases I had to use L1 but majority of the time I used the target language in
the teaching sessions. Scholars provide different opinions regarding use of L1
in the ESL Classroom. Bolitho
(1983) explained “use of the native language permits the students to say
what they really want to say in the target language.” (P.15) Moreover, Willis (1996). mentioned that “students
should be engaged in learning activities in the target language.” (p.130).
Lessons were planned
while adhering to the learner profile; students’ proficiency level, students’
interests and learning needs. For instance, in order to fulfill the requirement
of advanced level students who need to prepare for their advanced level
examination, “Email writing (Formal and informal email writing)" and
"writing passages" lessons were selected. Moreover, I used students
centered activities like group work pair work rather than teacher-centered
activities in order to increase student talk time. According to Nunan (1991) “a learner –
centered classroom is concerned to practice the target language Student talk
time (STT) be supposed to be around 80% during the course of the lesson” (P.28)
Students were given a
chance to do small presentations in groups in order to improve their confidence
in expressing English language. Therefore, I encouraged all of them to do oral
performing activities which facilitated the students to complete all four
language competencies. According to Al-Issa (2006) “The literature on teaching English has
emphasized integrating the four skills and giving them equal weight Oral
presentations facilitate this.” (P.20) Moreover
he emphasized on the fact that taking the floor and standing in front of other
people, such as one’s classmates, to present one’s work is challenging because
it requires confidence and courage” Adding extra materials to the teaching
process. Students were interested about using extra materials rather than
limited into blackboard. Therefore, in order to improve students’
understanding on the passage without help of mother tongue, I asked questions
from each paragraph after read it out. I noticed that this method helped
students to concentrate and engage interactively with the lesson. Furthermore, According
to Thakur (2015) “use of supplementary materials provides the
basis for the use of meaningful real language through interesting contents and
extended contexts, which enables the learners to become more motivated and
active in learning the target language and willingly participating in it” (P.
5).
I tried my level best
to use the theories that we had learnt in the TESL course into practice in
order to provide the learners a better learning experience. There were two such
theories as “Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis and input hypothesis.” According
to Krashen (1982),
there are two prime issues that prevent the lowering of the affective filter.
The first is not allowing for a silent period (expecting the student to speak
before they have received an adequate amount of comprehensible input according
to their individual needs). The second is correcting their errors too early in
the learning process. Following Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis, I always
tried to keep the affective filter low within the classroom environment. Most
of my activities based on speaking which was given a platform for students to
practice the target language but students felt fear, embarrassment and anxiety
when speaking to the class. Therefore, teacher need to be understandable about the
low proficient learners to speak until they are ready and providing necessary
help to them as well as incorporating activities which could cater all the
proficiency level of learners. For example, I encouraged students to make
posters and present it to the class which gave them a platform to practice
logical order of thinking pattern. Moreover, most of my activities were based
on expressing personal opinions, therefore though low proficient learners are
afraid to talk, their ideas were highly appreciated at the classroom.
Then, I tried to use Krashen (1977) Input hypothesis in the classroom.
Therefore, I introduced the learners i+1 through giving students extra
knowledge rather than which they received from the pupils’ textbook. Though I
made the lesson plan while relating to pupil’s textbook. I always used
different types of activities which would help the improvement of student
knowledge. For instance, when I teach reading passages to the students, I always
provide them extra information about the passage and introduced synonyms for
words which they could develop their target vocabulary.
Another theory I practiced within the classroom
setting was Vygotsky’s social interaction theory. The rationale for
incorporating Vygotsky’s theory was because I had identified that the classroom
comprised of both low proficient learners as well as high proficient learners. Thus,
I mixed the MKOs with the less proficient learners and let them help their
peers when engaging in activities. Where I conducted group and pair activities.
However I used individual work as well.
Furthermore, there
were many things that I had gained from my teaching practicum which was very
useful to my future career. I learnt certain techniques that could be incorporated
into my teaching sessions during this period. Moreover, the teacher always
tried to give positive feedback for student answers in turn this showed some
motivation in the students to answer back. Teacher made positive, cool feedback
in order to motivate students.
 |
| Motivational feedback to students answer back |
In this period of time,
I understood the classroom that we had pictured on our mind is far away from
the real classroom. I was exposed to experience the life of a teacher. Your only
focal point is not teaching the syllabus or complete the lessons but handling
the appropriate communication skills and rapport with the students. I clearly
understood the fact that for many students learning English is an uninteresting
experience because of the everyday mechanical manner that the ESL teacher used.
Therefore, I learnt the fact that teacher should break this monotone. Actually a
resourceful, imaginative and creative teacher can always break this monotony
using innovative techniques and authentic materials. At that time, teacher can
make the classroom atmosphere, ensure better learner motivation and participation,
and make the teaching and learning of English an enjoyable, stimulating, and
memorable experience. Furthermore, instead of criticizing and hurting the
confidence of a student, teacher need to be the savior or motivator of the
students. I believe that I had done my level best in order to strengthen the students’
lives and expectations.
References
Ahmed, I. (2013). Importance of Group Work For ESL
Students In Bangladesh: A Tertiary
Level Perspective: A
Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement
for the Masters of Arts in
ELT and Applied Linguistics
Al-Issa, A. (2006a). Ideologies governing teaching
the language skills in the Omani ELT system.
Journal of Language & learning,
4(2).
Bolitho, R. (1983).
Talking shop: The communicative
teaching of English in non-English-
Burdett.(2003). Making Groups Work: University
Students' Perceptions. International
Education Journal,
4(3),177-191.
Nunan, D. (1991).
Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambidge: Cambridge
University press
Parris, R., S. (2009). Adolescent Literacy, Field Tested: Effective Solutions for Every
Classroom.
(D. Fisher & K. headley. Eds.). United Kingdom: Blackwell Publication
Thakur, V. S. (2013). Engaging learners in
productive learning: Some pedagogical gateways. In Z. N. Patil, S. Marathe,
& A. Patil (Eds.), Aspects of ELLT:
Essays on Theory, Practice and Experimentation in English Language and
Literature Teaching in India and Elsewhere (pp. 185-204). Hyderabad: The
English and Foreign Languages University.
Vygotsky, L.S. (2016). Mind in Society: Development
of Higher Psychological Retrieved from http://www.parentcentredparenting.com
Willis, J. (1996). A Framework for Task-based
Language Learning. Harlow, UK: Longman
