When talking about the view in Li-Shan, it’s a beautiful school with a lot of tree. I love trees that make our environment more natural and comfortable. One of the buildings in the school is like a Disney castle with a clock, and which might be the highest and most notable building. We were all interested in that building and took a lot of pictures.

In Li-Shan, we observed two classes which were taught in whole English. We were surprised, but it seemed to be must, and students can follow and understand the teacher. The first class we observed was Ms Cheng’s teaching. At first, Ms. Cheng used a single word “luncheon” which is related to the lesson, and asked students to think about anything related to “luncheon” to make them focus and get into the lesson quickly. Then, the students got handouts and listened to the CD with handout. After finished the listening, students need to summarize what they heard and classify the vocabularies used in the article. To my surprise, most of students can complete it by themselves. I like Ms Cheng’s teaching because it was clear and put listening, reading and writing together. The teacher seemed to manage everything in a soft pace, and have a lot of interaction with students. She left space for students to have their own answers after thinking instead of telling them the answers.

The second one we observed is Ms Du. Ms Du used PPT with students’ pictures to show the body language, and which really caused great interaction and attracted students’ attention. After that, she gave student handout to ask them to find the main idea of each paragraph. Some students did very well, but some needed more time to do it. Maybe it takes times to do the practice, but it’s useful for students’ to improve their reading skill. At the end of the class, Ms Du used a short movie to show how body language can be used so vivid, and the movie was also impressive. For Ms Du, she always tries to use visual aid in her teaching to make students see and know what it is.

After the observation of the two classes, I think that teaching in English is quite important for students to improve their listening and get into the English learning situation quickly. Besides, the teachers in Li-Shan really show us how much love and passion they have for students and teaching. There is still a long way to go for us to become an English teacher like them, but I am happy to visit Li-Shan and learned a precious experience.  

My reflection on Teaching Speaking

After reading Alice’s activities for training students’ speaking, I think the most important thing is that the instruction instead of conclusion. The teacher just makes the rules or gives them the central idea, and students follow the instruction to create their own content. The activities include doing research, situational activity, dialogue, speech, experience sharing, role play and etc, which using attractive topics and lots of group work to enrich the whole job. Those activities have functions and are useful to make students not promote their speaking, but also listening, writing and creativity. Why creativity? I think the activities are creative and leave a lot of space for students to create and perform in the way they want, and use the language lively. I love those activities which must take a lot of time to complete. Hoping that I can also make activities like that.  

Besides, speaking may be the most difficult part for Taiwan students. Some students have learned English for many years, but it’s also hard for them to speak English or talk with foreigners because they’re afraid of making mistakes, including me. I seldom have chance to speak English very often and train my own speaking skill. Therefore, I am afraid of speaking English, especially in front of the public. I know I am not used to it enough. However, in this class we discuss and share with each one in English as most as possible, and I think I’ve gotten a little progress in speaking even though I still need to improve my own skill in English.

]]> http://donut0630.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/assignmentspeaking/feed/ 0 donut0630 http://donut0630.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/assingment-listening/ http://donut0630.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/assingment-listening/#comments Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:17:46 +0000 donut0630 http://donut0630.wordpress.com/?p=23 ]]> My reflection on Teaching Listening

The difficulties interfere students’ listening may be varied and need time to solve. However, the frustration may cause students to refuse learning, and lower the learning effect. Therefore, how to create a comfortable situation for students to get used to listening little by little or use different strategies which could interest students become important. In class, we talked about listening difficulties for each level learner and classified the activities for them. Before that, I never thought about learning process like that and never thought deeply about difficulties for each level learner with different activities. Now I know better about the difficulties and the way to help solve those problems for different level learners. It’s useful for me to teach in the future and provide assistance for different students.

In addition, I really liked the way Alice wanted us to present in the class because we just got books and questions, and then we discussed and shared to integrate and complete the whole idea. It was interesting and trained our cooperation within groups. I also liked the activity that one person goes to read and memorize the sentence, and another listens and writes it down. It trained our listening, speaking, writing and memory. I did the activity for my elementary students with simple sentence, and they love it!    

I think a lesson plan provides a teacher to prepare and think about what the class is going to be taught before teaching. Also, a lesson plan gives a teacher a clear guidance and steps to remind him or her whole structure of the class. In this way, a teacher won’t be lost or stray form the main goal of the class.

In a lesson plan, I think the main purpose should be mention first. When we get the main purpose we want to achieve, then we know what elements we can add to the lesson plan, such as activities, time management, evaluation, etc. When we clearly know the steps and the whole procedures of the class, we will be more confident and can handle the class better than not having a lesson plan. Therefore, making a lesson plan is important for teachers. A good lesson plan will makes good teaching. However, it doesn’t mean that we need to put any tiny things in a lesson plan and totally follow it because there are always emergency in class. We still need to transfer it with what the class goes.

1.      Lesson: Unit 1 Images of Animals

2.      Purpose:

(1)   Understand the images of animals and know better

about them in using language.

(2)   Learn to describe animals, and then know more

about the key to describe something.

(3)   Know the sentence patterns: 

(1) Vt + DO + prep. + IO = Vt + IO + DO

       (2) It seems that S+V = S seem(s) to +V

(4)   Practice how to form a paragraph with the correct

 format.

3.      Time: 6 classes

4.      Equipment: textbook, computer, handouts, CD player,

blackboard

 After 2-week ICT lessons, I truly know more about ICT in teaching. Before the class, I just know little about the ICT, or the traditional way used in teaching and learning. The introduction of ICT makes me realized that ICT can be used in varied ways which contribute flexible and effective learning opportunities to students, such as the use of PPT shown from Alice impressed me a lot. Before that, I haven’t seen anyone use PPT in that way to teach English.

The idea surprised me and reminded me that imagination and creativity in teaching are necessary. I believe that a teacher who can make good use of ICT will bring brand new learning experience for students, and that’s what I want to know and need to learn. I expect I can keep all these things in my mind and create my own way using ICT in my teaching when I became a teacher!

I think that Grammar Translation, Communicative and Affective humanistic approach will have more influence on my teaching, even though I don’t konw if I can do it well or not.

For a non-native speaker,  grammar translation is necessary for students to know what a sentence mean, and which will make them know better about the language. I know grammer would cause some pressure on students, but I still think it’s a way to learn a language well and clearly. 

Next, I think the Communicative Approach is quite important,too. If we can’t use the languge in daily life, then languge learning is meaningless. Why do we need languages? Because we want to share and commute with each other. One day,when I was teaching in cram school last year, I said”Take 10 minutes’ break”. Then the greatest student in the class said”what? Turn to page 10?” After saying that, he started to open his book and other studnents laughed.  He is good at grammar and reading, and always gets the highest grade in English in the class. Howerer, he can’t use the language in his real life. That incident really makes me think more about the purpose of language learning and the approach of English teaching.

As for the Affective humanistic approach, I think each student is unique and potential. I tend to ecourage them and lead them to find their advantages in learning. I always belive affective humanistic approach could be influential for teaching the subject.

All in all, not just one approach can be meaningful in teaching, but differnt kinds of approaches can make my teaching flexible and effective.  

Q: What stragegies will you use to make your teaching more effective and meaningfull?

To make my teaching more effective and meaningful, I prefer the student-centered teaching. As a counselor, I can  provide what students lack or need. In this strategy, I can ensure that students can get what they want and learn what they need. In addition, I’ll use a lot of eye contacts and more interactions with them, attracting their attentions and enhancing their interests in learning. 

Further, I would like to set up different standards for each student, and won’t be stingy to reward them if they reach their goals. Therefore, students whose grades are not on the top of the class still have motivations to move on. For me, strategies vary with teaching experience and students’ individuality. With my self-development, I belive I will find more strategies to practice in teaching.