Course 4-Final Blog

Practical Pieces of Knowledge:

I thought I was a good ESL teacher before taking this course. I always reflected on my lessons and thought of ways to improve them. Now, I question everything I do. I really don't feel as competent as I used to. I realized I was teaching more like a regular teacher than an ESL teacher. There is a difference.

I didn't know much about teaching ESL from a communicative approach. I segregated grammar too much. Vocabulary, and pronunciation weren't embedded in my lessons as much as they could have been. I didn't know about creating lessons around functional tasks. Now, I understand more about creating a task and analyzing all the language that is needed to carry out that task so that it can be transferred to real life. Modules should be planned with an overarching theme and topics. It's also essential that:

1) proper assessments are made
2) continual feedback and assessments occur throughout the course
3)vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation are embedded in lessons and taught in context
4 different formats are used
5) inductive and deductive learning is encouraged
6)info gaps and role plays are used to replicate real life tasks
7)realia and authentic materials are incorporated
8)students spend time reading each class
9)listening skills are encouraged since listening is neglected
10)receptive and productive tasks are utilized
11)accuracy and fluency need to be balanced
12)students receive controlled and guided practise with feedback
13) communicative practise is done after controlled and guided practise  to encourage autonomy
14) pronunciation is taught so that it doesn't interfere with communication

In my opinion, no one should be allowed to teach ESL without taking a CTESL approved course. This is to ensure that teachers are all "on the same page" to maximize student learning.

Course 3-Vocabulary and Grammar Summary

Key points that I learned and would like to recall:

1) there are 3 types of errors a) lexical b) grammar c) discourse errors

2) developmental and transfer errors are different

3)it's important to address systematic errors as students are formulating a system

4) if a teacher changes a multiple-choice question to a wh-question, then multilevel responses can occur

5) using homonyms, synonyms, and antonyms, volume, repetition, can aid learning new vocabulary

6) using info gap activities is important

7) making vocabulary personally relevant is key

8) gradable scales are another technique to help with similar vocabulary

9) retention depends on the amount of mental and emotional energy used to process a word

What surprised me the most:

1)I use all of the correction techniques without having known about them. It's funny to see them written down or to watch a video on them when I already use them, but didn't label them as such.

2)Feedback includes 1)correction 2) clarification 3)positive feedback 4)reformulation. I usually only thought about feedback as correction.

3)The amount words we usually have in our vocabulary.


What ideas I struggle with:

1)using a monolingual dictionary in class-I always preferred a bilingual dictionary when I learned other languages

2)remembering to use positive feedback more. I think as teachers we focus more on correction and need to point out correctly spoken or written sentences as well. This also includes commending good vocabulary usage etc. I think we should also encourage students when they attempt to go beyond their safety zone in experimenting with language. An element of risk is necessary for a student to achieve autonomy.

Course 2- The Role of Learning Objectives

The role of learning objectives is:

1) to define what students should demonstrate to prove that they have gained knowledge in participating in the lesson/course
2) to direct and shape the course
3) to focus on the activity so learning is focused for both teacher and students
4) to emphasize function not structure
5) to assess if learning has occurred

I believe that using KSA(knowledge, skills and affect, Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives(knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation) and SMART(specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely) as guidelines will ensure great objectives are created.