REFLECTIVE SUMMARY

Asking ICQ, CCQ in order to engage students with the lesson 

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

                 Retrieved from, file:///C:/Users/admin/Downloads/Group%20Work.pdf

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-

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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