Unit 1 : Who I Am & Who I Want to Become
Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed. revised).
Chapter 1: Getting Started
This chapter covers a 50 minute weekly EAL lesson. The lesson is outlined in steps and we are later asked to make considerations about each of these steps and the choices of Ms. Choi (T). Readers are provided with some background information about the students, teacher and environment before beginning the lesson observation.
My first impression is that a 50 minute course is too short to check for comprehension and that it did seem like T was focusing a lot on keeping her pace. While her students are all well educated and have not had to deal with interrupted, or little, learning it seemed that their were often times where she could have done more to ensure the students were understanding the tasks. There were several times where she simply asked "do you understand?" and she would receive the standard response of nodding heads. I think it's a foolish question to ask and is usually only asked when the T is trying to move the lesson forward. It would be better to ask specific comprehension questions like "Which category should 'movie' go into?". Offering other examples for the students (S's) to work through so that they can show that they understand. That being said I can understand her choices since the class is so short and infrequent. T begins her lesson with small talk while taking attendance which is a good tactic to ensure that everyone is getting into the right mindset. It also ensures that all the students are using and producing English at the beginning of class. It can be relatively stress free as well if the stronger students are choosing to respond first as their responses can act as models for the more hesitant S's. This small talk also acts as a segue into the topic so that everything flows well. I would be comfortable giving this task 5-10 minutes of the lesson time if their was a lot of interaction.
T then moves on to another exercise wherein the S's are producing a list of movies. This is not part of the lesson in the book but I think it is a good addition as it allows the S's to practice in a less structured manner and is a better transition from the small talk. By allowing the S's to produce the list T is encouraging student investment and interest in the lesson. Since they will be referring back to this list throughout the lesson I think it's time well spent. T also restricted the list to English movies which I think will help keep S's focused on English.
T then introduces new information and asks for definitions. I think she would have been better off trying to get the students to categorize a few of the movies from the list they produced by asking very general questions before introducing this new information ("What kind of movie is 'X'?", "Is 'X' a funny movie?" " How does 'X' make you feel?"). T could have then offered her categories and and seen if the S's can connect their words with T's. T also chose to use the word categories rather than genre which seems like a good choice to me. Genre doesn't sound like its spelled and the S's might already be familiar with the word "categories" which could save some time on explanations. The T also uses the S's native language here to help them understand and this is something I have difficulty controlling.
By no means do I expect S's not to make use of their 1st language. It is a tool that can help them learn. I think it is important, and perhaps necessary, for adult learners to rely on their 1st language to acquire another. The T's use of S's native language seems to me like another pacing mechanism. I have no idea how a T can not have a meltdown when they only have 50 minutes for a lesson. Pacing is something I struggle with. I am more than happy to redo my plans if it means that I can let good production and reception of English run its course. However, I do not have a standard curriculum and our program is very student centered and task based. We teach what students want to learn.
Getting back to Ms. Choi in a more condensed form. She carries on her lesson with several other activities that make limited use of reading and writing. Mostly reproducing writing and reading simple questions. Bound by time and curriculum as she is I see no easy way around this but I would suggest that she prepare better homework for the S's. As they are only meeting once a week the S's must take responsibility for their own learning. They should still be practicing when they are not in class.
At one point T had the students copy a chart from the board. If possible I would have prepared a chart and had the S's fill out the necessary parts as a time saver. I would have also used this time to chorally practice the questions and answers needed to complete the task rather than when T did repetition earlier. T offers plenty of opportunity for group work and thus T observation but not much is said about what she is doing while this is happening. Her activity with the chart is one I use often and I think it gives the S's a chance to learn from each other. I find that often other S's are better at helping a student understand when the T has not been able to help.
Ms. Choi gave the S's 2 opportunities to report their findings. While the finding themselves seem a little pointless I think reporting provides another opportunity for practicing the structure they have been learning. It also helps to keep the S's interested and invested in the lesson.
My overall impression of the lesson was that it was well planned and paced but with little consideration for the learners. Student's must know X and we have Y time so make it work. The T and S's stayed on topic and achieved the functional focus of discussing preferences and the formal objectives of using "would rather" and categorizing movies. I would have liked to see the follow up lesson to see how the T reinforced the learning. It seemed like these were new task types for the students so I would have liked to see more explanation and comprehension checks even if it meant less got done.
Chapter 8: Cultural and Socio-political Aspects
This chapter introduces a lot of interesting terminology and things to consider when thinking about classes, teachers, students and location. Early in the chapter we are briefly introduced to a few ideas surrounding language and culture and about how the two are interwoven. This is something that has come up in my workplace and with my coworkers. I was born in Canada and am a NEST while the other teachers I work with are all immigrants and are NNESTs. When we substitute for each other, or observe each others classes, it is always interesting to see the differences in the room.
I don't disagree with any of the advantages of NNESTs outlined in the chapter but do wonder about how the cultural aspect differs when shared by NESTs and NNESTs in the ESL and EFL environments. I have seen teachers reference back to how things are done in their first country that would surely cause heads to turn in Canada. Soft skills, hierarchies, relationships, honorifics and those things referred to as the big and little c's in this chapter; There are so many little things that can make someone seem out of place or cause offense to either party. It is interesting to see how students from different classes behave in similar settings. As someone born here and a native speaker there are many things I have not had to think about or notice. Working with NNESTs and newcomers is a great way to discover more things about your culture and language while developing intercultural competence.
I think newcomers to Canada are lucky in that this country is still young and has largely been accepting of other cultures. I do my best to explain why things are done this way or that way but remind them that they are helping to shape the culture here too. I think keeping an open mind and being aware of your actions is crucial. The classroom is the best place to make mistakes for teachers and students. They are great learning tools.
I was once helping teach a Muslim woman from Somalia. She was placed in a mixed level class and needed additional support. I was in my first year of volunteering and wasn't very aware of my actions. While sitting with her and guiding her through a worksheet I found she would move her chair away from mine. I didn't think anything of it and moved my chair closer so that we could both easily see the worksheet. This happened 2 or 3 more times before she stood up in and started yelling in Somali. I had no clue what was happening but luckily there was another student who helped explain what was happening; It was not proper for a me to be sitting so close to her and it was very upsetting for her. I apologized and we changed our seating arrangement. Since then I always ask students if its ok for me to sit next to them and I've also become quite good at reading upside down writing. Now I more aware of small gestures and other cues that help me pause and think about what I am doing and what's happening around me in and outside the classroom.
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