Keeping a Diary in EFL Teaching
(part 2)
13 Oct, 2013
Since today is Saturday,
I stayed at my room and installed my computer with office 2007 and did all
corrections in assignment 3, only conclusion is left because it needs to be
written after one-way ANOVA is performed. When the means and standard
deviations of more than two interval scores are calculated, Independent Samples
T-test cannot be used. Without knowing that, I used Independent Samples T-test
which is wrong and the results of the descriptive statistics I presented in my
assignment based on the pilot study is erroneous. I saw it appear in Nunan's
(2009) book but did not think about it further. I have to re-do the
calculations.
14 Oct, 2013
Went to the college.
Even though today has been declared as a working day, the students were not
present. In general, students don't attend the classes when a working day falls
between two holidays. We went to classes and stayed there for 20 minutes and
then returned to the office. Around 5.45 I left the college. No special work
was done today at the college except the QA meeting where we concluded the work
that was assigned to us. Today there was a slight change in the weather in that
the sky remained cloudy since morning so some predicted that there will be
rains soon. We hope it happen soon. Dr Jun (An English lecturer) said that
Aquilis (An English Lecturer) was hospitalized for a surgery.
15 Oct, 2013
Beginning from today up
to Saturday this week are Eid holidays so no classroom teaching in the college.
In the morning, I prepared a grammar revision paper for level 3 because the
next we will have to do a revision of all the units we have covered up to now.
Since the scores of the grammar quiz indicated poor performance, I designed a
revision paper in such a way that it allows them to recall what points are
really necessary for them in the mid semester exam that will start on 27 of
October, 2013. Although the time passes quickly, the amount of students’
learning seems to be a very little. That is why, as I assume, most students
can't perform well in an examination setting. I sometimes get to think whether
some students in our classes suffer from test anxiety which is a psychological
condition in which people experience extreme distress and anxiety in testing
situations. While many people experience some degree of stress and anxiety
before and during exams, test anxiety can actually impair learning and affect
test performance. This really is a crucial issue that needs to be addressed in
no time. The students' rate of acquisition seems to be so low even after they
were exposed to a considerable number of hours in classroom instruction. I hope
if students are instructed or counseled individually, this problem may, to a
certain degree, be addressed. The following cover page is from a grammar test
paper administered for level 3 students in a given semester-end exam and it
clearly proves my claim made above. For
ethical reasons, the identity of the student has been withheld.
16 Oct, 2013
At room and started
working on the proposal. I completed nearly three third of it and the
literature review section still remains in complete because it needs to be
organized on themes rather than on individual studies. Lot of work could have
been accomplished if the Internet was available. I need to perform One Way
ANOVA with the pilot group’s study data to find out if there was a significant
difference in the statistics.
17th Oct,
2013
Still holiday so I
could finish almost three thirds of my proposal. I still need to revise the
literature part and do ANOVA to find any significant difference across the test
marks of the pilot study group. Once the college begins I try to do it online
if possible if not try to down lord any statistical software. Further, I need
to get the permission from the dean which I hope to do soon.
20th Oct,
2013
Attended the college
and did two classes where grammar was taught. I discussed a model paper with
the students who had already studied grammar rules pertains to simple present,
present continuous, simple past, comparative and superlative adjectives but I
still find that the majority of my students have not learnt them properly. It
seems they easily forget what they learn in the classroom. This seems to be a
critical issue where the critical period hypothesis as proposed by Krashen
(1982) comes into play. The critical period hypothesis states that the first
few years of life is the crucial time in which an individual can acquire a
first language if presented with adequate stimuli. If language input doesn't
occur until after this time, the individual will never achieve a full command
of language-especially grammatical systems. In second-language acquisition, the
strongest evidence for the critical period hypothesis is in the study of accent,
where older learners do not reach a native-like level. However, under certain
conditions, native-like accent has been observed, suggesting that accent is
affected by multiple factors, such as identity and motivation, rather than a
critical period biological constraint (Moyer, 1999; Bongaerts et al.,
1995; Young-Scholten, 2002). Since the beginning of this semester, the students
were immersed in grammar rules explicitly. Students were provided with a number
of exercises and feedback. But they seem to have not learnt them yet. Once they
are given an exercise, they need my help all the time. Sometimes, some students
cannot identify the similarity when the two sentences are alike. For example:
suppose if students are given an exercise in which they are asked to write or
underline the correct form of the verb ( Simple present or present continuous)
the first sentence looks like the one below: Ali _____[study] at AB College.
Then after three or four sentences, again similar sentence like the below is
included with the same structure; Ahmed ______[play] football on Friday
afternoon. Some students tend to write the first sentence correctly. However,
when they come to third or fourth sentence which is also from the same form,
they are not likely to apply the same rules as they did previously. Instead,
they write a different verb form. This means that teaching itself does not
cause learning. Depending on learning context, I presume that a teacher has to
change his all teaching technique and strategies to make his teaching more
useful to the learners. This is the crux of the issue which should be addressed
from different perspectives. Sometimes you may have to do a drill too even
though it has no place in the modern EFL classroom. Other time, you may require
applying TPR. Furthermore, you will like to provide learners with a script of a
conversation and ask them to practice and then produce it in pairs or small
groups. In addition, one might have to take a passage from a text book or a
magazine and ask learners to translate it into their native language. Perhaps,
a teacher can apply a teaching strategy called advanced organizer where he/she
teaches students how to read quickly in order to understand the gist of a text.
There may be some more methods, approaches as well as techniques which might be
effective and beneficial for learners who study English as a foreign language.
21 Oct, 2013
Went to the college and conducted
two classes as usual. For group 12, I gave students further practice of writing
a job application. Now most of them know how to start writing and what to
include in the sender's address and receiver's address. But still there are a
few who are not confident about themselves. As time passes and with much
exposure to this specific genre, I am hopeful that they will be able to become
proficient. In group 11, I noticed a remarkable change in the boys’
attendance. After a few weeks I found the class full with boys who generally
get absent on other days. When the exam nears, boys’ tendency towards classroom
studies naturally changes from idling to working hard because they want to
obtain pass marks from the tests. Haithem is a boy, who has got used to paying
a lethargic attitude to learning in the class for the past few weeks, began to
work actively and got many answers correct in the exercise I did with the class.
I felt astonished at his enthusiasm today. I wonder whether he keeps it until
the course ends. I believe that this kind of behavioral change is lined to
affects which sometimes are beyond our explanation.
The following answer
script of a student’s writing shows that the student has grasped the notion of
genre which according to Tribble (1996, p. 159) is “a communicative event which
uses texts in predictable ways to achieve agreed communicative purposes”.
(Author's data, 2013)
22nd Oct,
2013
Attended the college
and conducted two classes. For group 12, I started with comparison and contrast
paragraphs. I first showed them a PowerPoint I borrowed from Rhona (An English
Lecturer) and changed a little. It contained signal words with examples. After
that, I checked with them if they had brought the handout I had given them two
weeks before, but I found that they didn't brought it. So I had to start with
their textbook. These are some of the practical difficulties which teachers
encounter every day. I got them to do one exercise, in which they had to
practice how to use signal words such as similarly, likewise, both....and, so
do:/does. As is often the case with boys, they still need my help so I offered
to help them. That lesson is to continue next week. With group 11, I did a grammar
lesson as I did yesterday. They did it quite enthusiastically in the first
hour. After that their interest began to decline gradually. I think this is
natural given the function of the brain. So some students continued to answer
the model question paper while others did not. The second session starts at 5
and ends 6p.m. When the clock hits 6 p. m, students’ attention begins to shift
from lesson to going home.
23rd Oct,
2013
Went to the college.
Today I had to do a substitution because Aquilis is sick. I went to my class so
I could help some students with some grammar point which they still had
problems. Badriya and Fatma still did not understand how present continuous is
used for activities that are happening at the time of speaking and for arranged
activities that will take place in the future. I explained to them with
examples and had their attention draw to the model question paper too. They
confirmed that they understood it. Later, I went to another pair (Mariam and
Aisha). They wanted to know how simple past and past continuous are used. Having
drawn their attention to the exercise given in the model paper, I explained to
them how both tenses are used. They assured that they realized it. Maktoom and
Salim are two students who are quite weak in writing were also helped with
continuous form for arranged activities. The next one was Sulaman whose scores
for grammar quiz was the least in the class. I helped him with simple present,
present continuous and simple past, comparative and superlative constructions
and asked him to practice the model paper at home, but I don't know if he does
it. I think he has problem of reading and understanding the instruction because
when he is asked about the rules, he can tell them what they are but when he is
posed a question based on the same rules, he cannot write. However, I find
individual coaching works well with students especially with low proficiency
students because the fact is that when they are individually instructed, they
have to concentrate on the subject matter which the teacher explains to him.
When the students are in a classroom, there are many ways that their attention
can be diverted to different things. We have noticed this phenomenon in every classroom
irrespective of whether they are children or adults. Sometimes even in a
tightly controlled class, this kind of obstruction can occur. Talking too much
by the teacher in the classroom is too difficult to control given the new views
of language teaching in which the teacher should create a non-threatening
environment if he want the students to participate actively in a given lesson.
As soon as the teacher switches into an authoritarian role, the whole scenario
of the class begins to change. That is to say; students most probably will resort
to silent mode and especially the introverted students will not engage actively
in the lesson under discussion on one hand on the other, those who are
extroverted also become dissatisfied with a threatening atmosphere in a
classroom. Given the complex nature of human behavior, it seems rather
difficult to manage a classroom well even though there are some views that a
teacher should be able to control the class. I do not here mea n that teacher
should allow students to do whatever they want in the class. Musin came around
8 p.m. He wanted to practice how to write a job application further. I showed
him how to write a job application. I further, told him how to organize letter
according to the position given in the advertisement. I instructed him to write
one without looking at a previously written one. Otherwise he is just copying
from another paper to a new one where no writing can happen. Musin is so
week that he does not know basics of the target language. From my point of
view, he should be in level one. I wonder how he got access to level 3.
24th Oct,
2013
Today, the mid-semester
exam was conducted for all levels. For writing, there are two questions;
opinion and writing a letter of job application for level 3. Students have a choice. I hope group 12
students, must have selected option B (job application) because it should be
easy for them for two reasons; first, they received enough practice of writing
a job application. Second, the job advertisement given was simple. However,
even they could try opinion question which seemed easy for them to write. The
question was based on advantages and disadvantages of technology. We practiced
similar questions in the class. Until I examine their answer scripts, I m not
sure what they have done. Today I invigilated group 8 of level 3. I observed
that most students had written wrong answers for grammar. The first question
was based on present simple and present continuous. The first question read
like this: 1. Don't make any noise. The baby ______(sleep). I noticed many have
written their answer as, “Don’t make any noise, the baby sleeps or Don’t make
any noise. The baby sleeping” with no use of “be” verb. Only one girl of the
group had written it correctly. The example I give below confirms what I have
sated here in respect of students’ mistakes.
26th Oct,
2013
Yesterday I got the
answer scripts of group 4 for first marking. The number of scripts was 25 and
out of 25, as I expected, only two students had selected option (A) in which
they are required to write an opinion paragraph. The question is "Is
technology good or bad for our life? This really is a broad topic to discuss.
When we refer to technology, it covers a wide area such as transport,
communication, trade and commerce, education, health and so on. But I find the
points that are given as good and bad boil down to one specific area, which is
Internet. Internet is only a part of technological advancements. However, 23
students have selected option (B) in which they are required to write a letter
of job application to the manager of the company given in the advertisement.
Out of 25, only one student has written the letter somewhat correctly. The
student was a female and even she has not written the qualifications correctly.
She wrote, "I have a graduate in the field of business and management. After
that she wrote, "which was apply before 30th of October, 2013. In writing
about her skills, she writes, "I am fluent in written and spoke English.
However, when it comes to personal traits, she says, "I am responsible and
hardworking. The organization of her letter has some flows in that she should
have written about her nationality and age at the beginning just after the
opening sentence but she has written it in the middle which can be identified
as a problem of organization. When considering her conclusion, it should be
noted that it is quite right in the sense that it is really effective. So her
marks out of 20 are 13 which is the highest in group 4.
27th Oct,
2013
Attended the college
and found the students presence was so low that only four students were present
(two boys and two girls. Those who were present were taught. I gave them to
write a paragraph about comparing and contrasting. Bushar wrote an effective
paragraph with a strong conclusion. But Munira did not study English because
she said she wanted to do some math in order to pre-prepare for the math’s exam
which will be held the next day. Mushin and Maktoom came to the class and wrote
a half of the compare and contrast paragraph and then they left. Most boys in
level three have limited proficiency so they show no interest in studying
English however much it is needed. The second class had no students so I left the
college at 5.45p.m. Being teachers we should not feel happy when there are no
students in the class. Some students don't pay attention to lessons being
taught or the teacher. Instead they secretly use the mobile phone to communicate
with others. This clearly shows the extent to which the discipline has
deteriorated. As I view, this may be one aspect of their unruly behavior. There
can be a number of reasons that can lead to make someone behave in a disruptive
manner. Among the many factors which are external and internal to a person,
family background, biological traits, social and cultural influence can be
considered as important. Apart from those, existing situation in a given place
can also have some impact on someone's behavior. For example, a student in a
classroom where he feels he/she is threatened with subject matters. This
becomes very clear when students are learning an additional language like
English. Learners who are not ready to take a risk of making mistakes are
generally not considered as good language learners. Risk-taking has been identified as one of the
important characteristics of successful learning in a second language
(for
more information about the relationship and risk taking, one may read this
article available at http://www.withanarachchi.info/78-articles/86-article-6
28th Oct, 2013
Today group 12 had
reading quiz: skimming. Since Aquilis was absent, even though it was an off
day, I went to my class and conducted the test. I found some students had
problems in understanding the questions. The major problem they had was the
inability to read and understand the text given. I find them still illiterate
when it comes to reading a text in English. I think the problem of inability to
read and understand poses great problems for a majority of students. This issue
needs to be addressed initially before embarking on other skills. According to
a good number of studies, reading has been proved to be essential skills which
immensely help learners acquire a second language. Furthermore, reading helps
improve writing skills to a good degree. If you want to become a proficient
writer, you should be an avid reader. Given the students in the foundation
level, I believe that it is important to introduce a program that helps them to
develop an interest to hook on to reading. Even in group basis if such a thing
can be implemented, students will at least to a certain level, be benefited.
Again a program like this cannot be started due to time constraints. Teachers
who teach a specific skill tries to cover up the lessons suggested in the
course outline during the semester within which they might be bogged down with
preparing extra materials, exercises and tests. Given a condition described
above, it seems rather difficult for teachers to initiate something innovative
and effective in terms of language development of learners. As long as the
traditional classroom exists, I believe, the teaching and learning process
cannot be changed. The normal pattern into which the teachers, learners and the
institution routinely stick will continue to go. What I mean by normal pattern
is the one we get to see every day in a normal classroom conducted in an EFL
context. In other words, students come to the class (some are on time while a
few get late) and sit down facing the whiteboard which acts like a most
important learning and teaching aid in a typical classroom where a teacher uses
at his own will to explain subject matters. Before the students enter the
classroom, the skill teacher makes sure that he/she is present in the class.
Then, the teacher greets students and starts taking the attendee of the class.
Introduction of the lesson of the day to the class follows next. Teacher
explains to the students what they are going to study depending on the skill
and students will follow the teacher at every step. The class comes to the end
and the same process goes the next day and the other days too like a vicious
circle. In order to cause a change to this, one must make a change. But how and
when might be the problem given institutional constraints.
1st Nov,
2013
Holiday, since today is
Friday. Prepared one lesson-(causes and effects) and this lesson needs to be
taught next week. Only one month to teach for this group. In December,
somewhere in the middle they have the exam so I need to make them ready for the
final exam. On December 19 will be the last working day.
3rd Nov,
2013
Went to the college. I
did two classes where I taught grammar for group 12 in the first session. Today
my lesson was present perfect tense in which learners find no such aspect in
their native language; Arabic. Thompson-Panos and Tomas-Ruzic (1983) describes
that Arabic is a highly aspectual language, while English can combine a number
of tenses with simple, perfective, and progressive aspects. Arabic makes two
basic distinctions: the perfect and imperfect aspects. The perfect is used to
describe a completed action in the past, while the imperfect describes a
situation not yet completed (often in the present or future). Given this kind
of problem, we have to be careful in presenting grammar points to Arab
learners. In order to avoid this, I first distributed a pre-prepared list of
irregular verbs and got their attention to draw to it. However, the sheet I
gave them did not include all irregular verbs so I had to write the past
participle of some verbs that happened to be present in the activity I gave
them to do. Some students had problems in understanding it first but as they
continued to do the exercise, they became aware of the form. I plan to continue
the same lesson today with some more exercises where they will find the use of both
present perfect and simple past. They should be able to identify the
distinction between the two. During the second session, Head of the section
came to my class for observation. I did a writing activity in which students
were required to write a compare and contrast paragraph which was a continuation
from the last week. They waited there about 20 minutes and left the class. My
opinion about classroom observation is that it is good as long as it can have
an impact qualitatively on the teacher. But I don't believe it may have such a
positive impact on the qualitative development of the teacher who is being
observed. However, I don't mean that a kind of evaluation is not necessary.
There is no argument that it is a must but how it is done mostly matters
because from my experience I know that an observation will not bring any
positive results on the part of a teacher unless he/she really is willingly to
change the way he/she uses to instruct class. We all should accept the fact that no one is
perfect. Every teacher whether experienced or novice needs to learn from
different teaching contexts that he/she is exposed to. What we really should be
concerned about is how much learning has taken place against the amount of
teaching that a teacher has contributed in a given time. To measure this there
is no method existing in the domain of classroom teaching. For example, if a class
consisting of 20 students sits for an examination and 80% passed the exam and
then we tend to conclude that our results are better because of our teaching
was successful. How far this is true is beyond my cognition.
4th Nov,
2013
Attended the college
and conducted two classes as usual. Today level 3 students received their
mid-semester marks for all skills. In my class, the average marks of writing
are quite satisfactory. That is to say, out of 20, there are 4 students who
have got 15 to 20, 14 students who have obtained 10 to 14 and 6 students in
between 5 to 9. There aren't any who got below 5. Given these results for a
skill like writing in a context such as mine, I can be content. When I started
their writing class, I found except one or two students, all the others were
quite weak in that the majority could not write a few sentences with no errors.
Now their improvement seems really interesting. Of the 26 students, (two
students writing results were withheld due to the fact they were reported to
cheating in the exam) 18 students received better marks. However, I advised
those two students, who were caught cheating in the exam, to refrain of such
misdeeds which could have dire consequences on their future. Moreover, I told
them to work hard for the final exam and try to get good marks so that they
could go to the next level. Those two students, in general, are good in
behavior and I never found them cause any disturbances in the classroom. I
wonder why they attempted to cheat. I believe they must have done it not
knowing the consequences of it. Both are capable students with a need to study.
They could have easily answered the question which was based on job
application. Why some students try to cheat in an examination seems to be a
crucial issue that needs our attention. I wonder whether there is any link with
their social background. In other words, as I perceive that most students come
from socially backward families where one may find that many are either farmers
or smaller scale businessmen while most of their mothers are housewives who
have to stay at home and look after the family. General tendency is that Muslim
families are quite big in size and a typical family consists of more than five
children. So as is often the case with poor people in every country, these
students also have to receive a better education in order to lead a good life
in the society. If students fail to obtain some qualification from a college,
university or other higher education institution, they may have to suffer a
lot. Because of this problem, students are prone to do malpractice in an examination
setting. However, being teachers, we should make them convinced that committing
any form of exam cheating is unethical and illegal. Therefore, such practices
should be done away with.
5th Nov,
2013
Today is Friday so it
is a holiday. I plan to submit a proposal to the next ELC Annual Conference
which has been scheduled to hold in January, 2014. I think the pilot study I
conducted into the writing issues of level 3 students would be timely and
useful since many writing teachers are struggling with teaching academic
writing to their students. If the proposal is accepted, I am going to use a PowerPoint
presentation where I will present the way I did the study and the results I
obtained in the end so that it may have some effects on some teachers who want
to apply process genre approach to teaching academic writing. If they can use
it, I believe it will help not only the teachers but also students improve
their writing proficiency in the target language and as a result, most
probably, they will be able to perform well at an examination setting. I hope I
can complete the proposal which should be sent to the SPD committee in time.
6th Nov,
2013
Today is Saturday so in
the morning I did some reading and after that, prepared the proposal for the
ELT workshop which has been planned to conduct in January next year by the SPD
committee in our department. If the proposal is ready, I can send it to SPD
coordinator.
7th Nov,
2013
Went to the college and conducted two sessions for group 12;
grammar and writing. For grammar, I continued with the same lesson from last
week which is about present perfect tense with time words like already, still,
yet and just. I gave them more activities. In class work, students work but, as
I stated above, in the examination they don't. For writing, today, I introduced
describing bar graphs. First I explained them what a bar graph was and then I
taught them the features that a bar graph generally includes. The features are
bars, categories and labels. After that, I distributed a pre-prepared handout
in which a simple bar graph is included. The bar graph is about the students'
after school activities. Along with the graph, I included some questions
relating to the statistics of the bar graph so they were required to answer them
first. For example, what is the title of this bar graph?, how many categories
are there in the graph, which activity is liked by most students? Once the
answered the questions, I explained to them how to write a topic sentence for a
bar graphs and it was followed by writing a paragraph describing the graph. I
helped them form a few sentences and asked them to describe the information one
by one making both comparisons and contrast where necessary. However, the
students stopped where they needed to write a conclusion. I told them to
restate the topic sentence with another way or using different words. Finally,
I wrote the topic sentence on the board for the whole class but I asked Bushar
if she had another conclusion. She said that should like to write a different
conclusion. Furthermore, I distributed them another handout where they are
required to write a paragraph of comparison and contrast because practice in
writing compare and contest is not enough. They could write only one paragraph
which is not adequate. They need to practice more.
To
be continued
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