TESL 0100- Unit 10- Reflections
As I was going over my learning process through this course, I found that I have learned a lot about teaching English and also about the students that I am about to teach; however, I still have a long way in this learning journey. One of the questions that we were asked to answer by the end of this course is: Look back at the 8 principles of language learning and teaching in Chapter 4 (Table 4.1. In Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 85). Choose one principle that you would like to further develop in your teaching expertise. What can you do to achieve that?
The principle that I would like to develop in my teaching expertise is building students’ self confidence.
I believe that students are so vulnerable when they start learning a new language. It is normal that they
do not have enough confidence to speak and participate in the classroom activities, but how the teacher
can build their confidence?
I believe that students are so vulnerable when they start learning a new language. It is normal that they
do not have enough confidence to speak and participate in the classroom activities, but how the teacher
can build their confidence?
I have done some research and found some tips about this issue. The most important is to try not to
correct them all the time. It’s important to correct students’ mistakes, but what happens if you correct
every other word a student says? When students make too many mistakes, and you make it abundantly
clear that that’s what they’re doing, their confidence starts to suffer. Make the necessary corrections
when you’re doing targeted practice, but don’t interrupt or correct as much during performance activities
when it’s better for students to just let go of their inhibitions and try to speak. The other thing is to Give
them chances to succeed. In an ESL class, students are at a disadvantage – they don’t understand; they
can’t speak like you do. Which is why it’s important to sometimes take the focus away from their weakness
(their poor language skills) and place it on their strengths. Although this could be hard for new teachers to
build students' confidence, I believe that if you provide a friendly and respectful environment for the students,
they would engage more and participate in class discussions.
correct them all the time. It’s important to correct students’ mistakes, but what happens if you correct
every other word a student says? When students make too many mistakes, and you make it abundantly
clear that that’s what they’re doing, their confidence starts to suffer. Make the necessary corrections
when you’re doing targeted practice, but don’t interrupt or correct as much during performance activities
when it’s better for students to just let go of their inhibitions and try to speak. The other thing is to Give
them chances to succeed. In an ESL class, students are at a disadvantage – they don’t understand; they
can’t speak like you do. Which is why it’s important to sometimes take the focus away from their weakness
(their poor language skills) and place it on their strengths. Although this could be hard for new teachers to
build students' confidence, I believe that if you provide a friendly and respectful environment for the students,
they would engage more and participate in class discussions.
To summarize my learning process through this course, I have created a Pecha Kucha video:
Resources:
Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed. revised). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education
Pesce, Claudia. (n.d). 7 Sure-fire Ways to Boost Student Confidence. Retrieved from: https://busyteacher.org/13582-7-sure-fire-ways-to-boost-student-confidence.html
Cox, Janelle (n.d). Teaching Strategies to Build Student Confidence. Retrieved from: http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-build-student-confidence
Comments
Post a Comment