My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

My teaching reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

Session 1

Date: 08/10/14

Already delivered

Session 2

Date: 29/10/14

About: Teaching methods

Session 4

Date: 05/11/14

About: Teaching
unplugged

Session 5

Date: 12/11/14

About: Digital learning

Session 6

Date: 13/11/14

About: Creative learning

Session 7

Date: 10/12/14

About: learners
autonomy

Session 8

Date: 17/12/14

About: TBL vs. PPP

Session 2
Through this session we have been introduced to the different teaching
methods. A method is a way of teaching which is dependent on your beliefs
about what language is, how people learn or how teaching helps people learn.
Therefore, you will have to make methodological decisions about what to teach
and how, ways to refer to students or ways to assess.
Leslie introduced us to the CLT (Communicative Language teaching) It is
believed that learners will learn best if they participate in meaningful
communicational acts. There are two types of CLT:
a) Strong CLT: Students learn by communicating, which means they do by
doing communicative tasks with a limited role for explicit teaching and
traditional practice exercises. (e.g. You just think of a task and the
grammar comes out of it)
b) Weak CLT: Students learn through a wide variety of teaching, exercises,
activities and study, with a tendency towards speaking and listening work.
(e.g. You think of the form you want learners to produce)
Another interesting teaching approach we were told about was ALA
(Acquisition Learning Approach) Devised by Stephen Krashen, also known as
the natural approach. This is a collection of methods and techniques from
many sources, all intended to provide the learner with natural
comprehensible language, so that the learner can pick up language in ways
similar to a child learning their first language. The basis of this learning
method is on the natural order that the content is delivered. Grammar rules
would be applied when learners are ready.

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

CBL (Content Based Learning) is a task-based approach in which content and

form are integrated throughout the tasks. Regarding this approach is based on
simultaneous use of function and form, there should be more text books based
on this combination, for they are mostly based on form (grammar content). That
is why this ideal method is so hard to introduce, as it requires an extra effort
from the teacher to adapt the content to the method. Tasks have to be
meaningful for the students, meaning that they should be based on the needs of
people in their daily lives.
CBL is the opposite of PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production), which is the
standard way of teaching, in which teachers present the content with little or no
interaction from or amongst learners. Learners are given input, they are
introduced to some practice and therefore, they are supposed to be able to
produce what they have learnt.

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

And then what about the different paces of learning in ALA? All of this made
me think about how difficult it is to be a teacher, since you have to think on so
many things! The truth is that most teachers do not follow a single method.
Through practise, you learn to combine and adapt the methods to your learners
needs.

We were also introduced to other so-called humanistic approaches, such as TPR

(Total Phisical Response), Suggestopedia or The Silent Way. The first option,
developed by Dr. J.Asher consists of learners listening to teacher instructions,
understanding and doing things in response, without being required to speak
until they are ready.

The second method mentioned above, Suggestopedia, was originally developed

in the 1970s by the Bulgarian educator Georgi Lozanov. The approach was
based on the power of suggestion in learning, the notion being that positive
suggestion would make the learner more receptive, and, in turn, stimulate
learning. Music would be used in order to create this suggestive environment. It
has not been proved as effective as have been claimed.

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

Nevertheless, the use of music both in the background and as an

accompaniment to certain activities can be motivating and relaxing, as long as
paying attention to factors such as lighting and furniture is surely not a bad
thing.
This approach is now called de-suggestopedia, but it is basicly the same
method.It relies on music to stimulate creativity and learning, and one of its
fundamental principles is the great deal of attention given to students feelings.

The Silent Way, devised by Caleb Gattengo, requires the learner to take active
ownership of their language learning and to pay great attention to what they
say. The teacher remains reatrained (but not completely silent) and specially
designed wallcharts are used. The approach is based on three core beliefs, that
learning is facilitated if the learner discovers rather than remembers or repeats,

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

that learning is aided by physical objects, and that problem-solving is central to

learning.
The last, but not the least method we were introduced to was Scotts
Thornburys approach, known as dogme, a method where teachers aim to get
rid of unnecessary materials or technology and get back to the fundamental
relationship and interaction of teacher and student in class. This is a very
interesting method, but I doubt that it could be implemented in a thirty student
class.
Session 3

Tell me and I forget

Teach me and I remember
Involve me and I learn
Benjamin Franklin

This is the basis of affective learning

Teaching through gaps:
I.

Information/ knowledge gap: An information gap task is a technique in

language teaching where students are missing information necessary
to complete a task or solve a problem, and must communicate with
their classmates to fill in the gaps. It is often used in communicative
language teaching and task-based language learning.

Examples given in class:

My Teaching Reflections
II.

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

Opinion gap: A basic activity which involves students, in pairs or small

groups, reading or listening to the same information that will elicit a
range of opinions from students and will lead to inspire conversation
and the exchange of information (opinions) using the target language.
Necessary transformation of the teaching practice:
I.

Language : From language to Function

II.

Roles: From Transmissive to Dialogic

III.

Methods: From Deductive to Inductive

IV.

People: From Cognitive to Affective

Session 4
T: Well then Jorge did you have a good
weekend?
St: Yes
T: What did you do?
St: I got married
T: (smiling) you got married. You certainly had a
good weekend then. ( laughter from class )
T: Now turn to page 56 in your books. You
remember the last time we talked about
biographies
Teaching Unplugged: Meddings & Thornbury 2009 DELTA Publishing

And in fact, one of our classmates said she is getting married!!

But, what is teaching unplugged?

It is a kind of instructional classroom talk which seems to approximate
closely to the notion of conversation: discussion (defined as the exchange

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

of ideas with a view to sharing information and solving problems), and

inquiry dialogue. Inquiry dialogue is less about the exchange of ideas than
the joint construction of ideas.
So, linked to that, we analysed the different ways of conversation in class.
How do we define the different following discussion/dialogue methods?
Role Play: The situation in which the learner is asked to imagine they are
someone else, but they cannot speak their minds, they have to try to figure
out what is going on this characters head and act as if they were him or her.
Real Play: The situation in which the learner is asked to imagine they are
someone else, but they can speak their minds.
Discussion: The act of considering a matter (it requires giving your point of
view)
Debate: A discussion involving opposing viewpoints (It requires coming to a
conclusion/decision)
Simulation: Re-creation of a real-life situation.
Drilling: Guided simulation (Controlled speaking)
Dialogue: Guided/Disappearing/Building
Information Gap: A technique in language teaching where students are
missing information necessary to complete a task or solve a problem, and
must communicate with their classmates to fill in the gaps.

Some examples given in class:

1. Imagine you are in a desert island. There is an architect, a coal miner,
a teacher, a musician and a doctor. We have to get someone out. Who
would you choose?
2. Another version: you are given different crimes and you have to
decide who is going to get free.
These activities are a chance to enhance real English speaking in the
classroom. Students have to use all their vocabulary and grammar
resources. It can be good fun and therefore motivating. Moreover,
Role-play allows hesitating students be less constrained in their
opinions and behaviour.

Session 5
Todays students are no longer the people our education
system was designed to teach. Marc Prensky ( p. 9 Digital
Play )

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

We talked about the difference of what goes on in the classroom and

what happens in real world.
What has changed?
What about using games in the class?
Be careful to play games, said Leslie, You may embarrass some of
your students
Session 6
Did your language teacher ever use songs?
What were they used for?
When in the class were they used?
Session 7
I like school. You dont have to think. They tell you what to
do. A childs comment about school taken from The Thinking
Child An Introduction: Robert Fischer IATEFL Young learners
SIG Newsletter No.17 March 1997
Learner Autonomy; true or false ?

means working alone

is something teachers do to their learners

is unlikely to be achieved without assistance

is the capacity for self-reflection

depends on the initiative of the teacher

requires the teacher to relinquish all initiative and control

is the capacity for decision making and independent action

is a single, easily described action

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

makes the teacher redundant

is something that develops out of our own experience of

learning

Session 8
...trainers are not psychotherapists, they are there merely to
raise awareness rather than alter personality. Any change will
inevitably come from the trainees themselves. (sorry no
source )
TBL: A goal-oriented activity in which learners use language to achieve a
real outcome. In
other words, learners use whatever target language resources they have in
order to solve a
problem, make a list, do a puzzle, play a game, or share and compare
experiences.

The TBL framework

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

It was designed to help create optimum conditions for

languagelearning. The three essential conditions for learning are:

natural

Conditions for TBL

Exposure to the target language in use, both spontaneous and planned

language, in
spoken and written form.
Opportunities to use the target language for expressing meaning both
in private and in
public situations, in pair and small group interactions, monologue and
writing.
Motivation to engage with and try to understand the exposure, and to
use what they
know to communicate what they mean.
A further desirable condition is:
Focus on language form to prevent fossilisation and help learners improve
upon what
they can do already.
TBL Cycle

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

Pre-task: Introduction to the topic and task instructions. This gives

exposure to teacher talk, but brainstorming useful topic words and phrases
is a good way of involving students in this phase.
Task Cycle
Learners use language in varying circumstances and are exposed to others
using it. The Task Phase gives opportunities for interactive spontaneous use
of language in the privacy of their pairs where mistakes dont matter.
The Report Phase encourages a combination of accuracy and fluency
(learners dont want to make mistakes in front of the class).
The Planning Phase is the time for teacher input and advice. Learners
plan what to say at the report stage, to correct mistakes, to strive to use
better language and to focus on form.
The optional listening phase allows students to hear how fluent speakers
did the same task.
Language Focus: Analysis and practice
Learners get repeated exposure to the language from the task cycle and
have a chance to focus on form and ask questions about language features.
Examples include consciousness-raising activities such as identifying,
classifying, and focusing on specific language features (eg verbs ending in
-ing). These help learners systematise what they already know while
noticing new things about language and the way it is used. Practice
activities may help them remember new phrases and patterns from texts or
transcripts of task recordings.

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

PPT Cycle:

A PPP Lesson

The target language tends to be generic because it is explained first

and applied later (prescriptive) rather than have it emerge naturally
out of an authentic exchange (descriptive). This is why PPP tends to
be lacking in EXPOSURE.

My Teaching Reflections

So, when planning

questions

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

task,

you

must

consider

these

My Teaching Reflections

TBL SAMPLE TASKS

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

My Teaching Reflections

WHY TBL?

Irma Rodrguez Quintana

My Teaching Reflections

Irma Rodrguez Quintana