CLOSURE

It has been more or less 4 months since the first day that I started to take this course of firegin language teaching. It was very hard work; I never thought this could be so demanding for me and my classmates. But now that I have finished I have seen how important is to have the aspects seen in class for the practicum that is coming next semester. 

Like I have mentioned before, I have learned quite a lot, about theory, how to manage a classroom, what to observe, how to treat kids, among many other things; but all that realted to theory. In terms of practice, that has been the most wonderful experience, it is actually interacting with kids and actually living the experience of being a teacher. At the beginning I admit I was a bit lost, I did not know how was it going to be or how was I going to deal with everything that I have learned at once. Now, after working very hard during class and working at school with the teacher that I was observing, I believe I have enough feedback to correct my mistakes and to have second thoughts of what I am doing. By this I mean thinking not only once, but twice about what I am going to be teaching and how.

What I would recommend to the future students of this subject is to have in mind that this is the previous step to check, ask and think everyhting that can come into mind because next time is for real. Next time you will be really teaching and you will be observed. So take this time to clear whatever doubt and to do your on research on things you think would be helpful for your practicum. 

TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ BELIEFS

STUDENTS' BELIEFS

For this third blog entry I worked, as the title says, on teachers and students’ beliefs. It was not an easy task, believe me, depending on the age, on the type of person you are dealing with, answers tend to vary completely. But in the end, it was very nice to see how the people react to these questions, and most important their thoughts about teachers and language learning. For by Bachelor’s degree I do believe this gives me tools and an idea of what I am going to be dealing with for the rest of my life. In a good sense, of course. Do not get me wrong; this is what I want to do.

Anyway, talking more specifically about the work I did, it is important to stand out the functions that beliefs have in teacher education. On the paper Gaining insights into teachers’ ways of thinking via metaphors, the author Gölge Seferoğlu quotes Richardson (1996) which talks about the functions saying “the first relates to the constructivist theories of learning suggesting that teacher candidates bring beliefs to a teacher education programme that strongly influence what and how they learn. The second function relates to beliefs as the focus of change in the process of education.” This means that anything that we construct, anything we build (in a personal way) throughout time regarding teaching will influence the students’ learning process. We have to be very careful; anything that we, as teachers, show in our classes, will be the image students will start having about ourselves and about learning a foreign language.

First, I will start about beliefs in language learning from students. For this part I will have to quote an Interview I did to kids during recess time the few questions I asked to students were: what they thought about learning English, if they liked it, if they thought it was important, what they liked the most and least, and finally, I asked about how they liked to learn.

Most of the students, (I interviewed 5 boys and 5 girls), told me that they liked learning English and that they considered it important because perhaps, in the future they will live in the States. They tend to link language learning with travelling and being able to communicate with other cultures. Not only to understand what others say, but also to make oneself clear when trying to communicate something. (Students, 2013. Personal interview).

About the positive aspects the students mentioned, they said that they liked learning another language because it was learning new things and it was also fun. I would like to clear out that by learning new things they were referring more to learning new vocabulary. A girl told me it was important to become “universitaria”. She associated this to the fact that her mother speaks English and studied at a university. Another girl told me that she liked learning English when a teacher taught her. At their age (first grader students) it is very difficult to get different answers from what they live and what they are used to. But taking into account what she said, I guess this means a classroom with a certain type of model to follow. (Students, 2013. Personal interview).

Before I start talking about the negative aspects mentioned by the kids, it is very interesting to see that in one hand, the 5 boys I interviewed said that they did not like learning English. On the other hand, the 5 girls I interviewed said they liked learning English. Although, about the importance of learning it, the 2 groups agreed on its great importance. Now, negative things. Well, in a general view, students did not like to learn English because sometimes they did not understand; they said that there were certain words that they did not get. (Students, 2013. Personal interview). Maybe, from my own point of view, teachers could try to improve this area so that kids feel more comfortable during English class.

Other negative aspect that was mentioned was that what they liked the least about learning English was doing homework. But, if you ask me, I do not think this has to do directly with learning English, but in general. Kids just do not like to do homework; it is something to reflect on mostly in general aspects, rather than to talk specifically in language learning. I mean, they are kids, of course they do not like doing any type of homework! 

TEACHERS’ BELIEFS

For this other part of my work I asked the in-service teacher to tell me what she thought a teacher should be. I did not asked her directly to use a metaphor, but she did. In the following part you will find the drawing she made and the explanation she send me via e-mail.

“A teacher should be an open book because we need to learn from new generations. Education has to be focused on changes and a real search of individual needs and interests.

As I was taught some years ago, it is necessary to identify students’ needs and interests to design activities for specific purposes. Nowadays, I find heterogeneous classes in which such as interests and needs depend on technology, life styles, family structure, learning disabilities, among others.

I wonder if this learning interests and needs became individual instead of a whole class interest. Through the practice and experience I have realized that the more we know our students contexts and real needs as individuals, the more we can help them.

Each page of that book became our teaching successful or unsuccessful experiences.  The last chapter must have very clear, that we as teachers do not have the last word. There is something new to learn.” (In-service teacher, 2013. Statement).

According to the chart that Seferoğlu (2009) uses on his reading, which was adapted from Oxford, there are three categories of teachers: autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. 

Having the chart above with the specifications, I will say that the in-service teacher I am observing is democratic. The in-service teacher talks about changes and interests, that is a good thing because it has not to do that much with the established aspect of teaching. She talks about purposes and needs, which is important because this could lead eventually to responsibility from students. What I also consider that should be stand out is the fact that there is the need to get to now our own students and that we also learn from them. Students need to be stand out during classes and as a starting point in order to work through the whole year. I may have to confess that at the beginning I thought she was going to be completely autocratic because of the drawing. But then I asked her to give an explanation so that I did not have to make untrue statements only judging by the drawing she made. It is not ok to judge a book only by its cover. 

Having mentioned all of the above, is it a very interesting exercise to do with teachers and students. It is very hard to find things that motivate students to learn a different language, even more if they do not have their vision of education as something good, important. That is why they tend to relate this to annoying things. About the teacher, well, everything we do will be expressed. In the end, students will be our own reflections. They grew with that, is what they were taught. Talking about teachers, it is not that easy to recognize oneself as we are. Sometimes we tend to think that we do things according to something that is "better seen", but at the end, we are the people we are. It is as simple as that, and maybe, by recognizing this, we are able to change, change certain aspects about what we do, how we do it, and become a better person for oneself.

REFERENCES

• In-service teacher (2013, March 20) Interviewed by Rodríguez Carolina. Bogotá.
• In-service teacher (2013, April 1) Statement. Bogotá.
• Seferoğlu, G. (2009). Gaining insights into teachers' ways of thinking via metaphors. Educational studies. Vol. 35, No. 3, July 2009, 323-335. 
• Students (2013, March 20) Interviewed by Rodríguez Carolina. Bogotá. 

METHOD-BASED OR POSTMETHOD?

On my last semester, I took a subject about didactics and methodology. I learned quite a lot, with the help of this subject it was easy for me to go to the school that I am working for and try to identify certain aspects in the classroom. In order to continue with this class, we needed to see if we reminded some things about last semester. The idea was to give a definition for method, what I remembered, and also what my classmates said, was that method is an instructional design. This was the starting point that I needed for me to make this second entry.

Since the in-service teacher I am observing is very willing to help, I took advantage of that and asked her about the method of teaching, she did not felt uncomfortable about the questions and answered them gladly. This is what she said:

About the method of teaching she told me that she used communicative approach during her English class but she also told me that the school used meaningful learning. It is working with their previous knowledge, getting to known their own style, motivate them to participate, ask questions, be involved in the lesson, and very important, use of the language. Since is an English class she said she is always trying to make them use the language, they understand it perfectly, but they need to use it. “Communicative language teaching can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom”. (Richards, J).

"The phrase competence in terms of social interaction sums up the primary emphasis of CLT, whose theoretical principles were derived mainly from concepts oriented to language communication..." (Kumaravadivelu, B). 

Regarding the teaching resources, well, there are many to choose form, but the ones she makes more use of are books, worksheets and visual aids. Once a week they have an ICT session, they go to the computer room, which is mostly called the interactive zone, and work with different type of activities. The teacher in-service uploads activities that are available for the kids at school and at home.

Effective teaching was defined as providing students with strategies, resources, and input so that they are able to reach their goals. The answer to the approach to classroom management was, if I am honest, a bit shocking. But on a second thought I finally understood that there was the need to be strict, otherwise kids will take you as a joke. The teacher in-service said that she had to keep an eye on everyone and everything every time. There is the need to set limits, rules, be consequent with things you said in the beginning. And here comes to most difficult for me to do as a teacher, facing kids, stop them when it is necessary. (In-service teacher, 2013. Personal interview). Once I got to know the kids and got sort of attached to them, it is hard to think that sometimes one needs to be a bit harsh if I might say it like that. We need to take into account the students’ needs, and their different way of doing things, but at the same time, setting limits will allow a better environment in the classroom and a better relationship between students and the teacher.

Finally, about the qualities, well it is not very different from what a person should be in society. This is, respectful, active, resourceful, good communicator, punctual, responsible (In-service teacher, 2013. Personal interview). The thing that I liked most about this interview and this exercise was that in the end, everything she mentioned was true. I mean, I was able to see these aspects during class and how the teacher in-service behaves.

For the past lessons, English and Math, I wanted to observe how the teacher dealt with the students’ role. From time to time students can be a bit noisy, but the in-service teacher immediately point out when something is not ok for them to do. What I have seen is that students have a very active role. Everyday they make a daily prayer and they can ask for the things they have, for their classmates, among many other things. For example a student, Samuel prays for Juan David’s grandfather who is sick (Entry # 6, 2013. February 20). Students can also put their agendas were they are supposed to be, they can take the attendance to the corresponding office. It is like getting them involved in the daily chores and also is a way for them to be active in the day.

What really impressed me was that one day one kid asked the teacher if they could listen to a song and sing it. The teacher agreed and they did it before the class. By this we can see that students have a voice and that the things that they are asking for are given to them. It was a way to engage kids in the class, and to be a bit more participative. Although, kids are mostly participative in class, they even get mad when they are not able to. They are always raising their hands to participate and the teacher seems very happy with these kinds of responses from the kids. For the kids to be more involved in the class the teacher asks questions randomly and the students are expected to answer. (Entry # 7, February 27).

From what I have observed, from what the in-service teacher has told me, from the theory I have read, I can say that the in-service teacher does not follow a method or post-method pedagogy. I would dare to say that it is a transition since she works with the communicative approach but goes further and tries new things for the kids and for herself. The in-service teacher told me that for her English class she used the communicative approach, as I have mentioned it before.

According to B. Kumaravadivelu in the text TESOL Methods, Changing Tracks, Challenging Trends, the evolving perspectives on language teaching methods are from communicative language teaching to task-based language teaching, from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy, and from systemic discovery to critical discourse. This is why I say the in-service teacher I am observing is in a transition period, if I might say it like that. She is context sensitive, the usage of the L1 in the classroom is a tool, rather than a holdback, the environment of the classroom is totally different from what I have heard that others can be, students are active and there is a feeling of a familiar environment between the kids and the teacher. The teacher follows the communicative approach in the sense that the student is the main character and that the needs of the students are what come first in terms of planning a class, the exercise the kids do, the time they take, etc.

As we have seen it is like a balance between following strictly a method and an approach, it is being flexible. As the teacher said it herself in the interview, she works with their previous knowledge, takes into account their personal styles, and gives the motivation to participate actively and most important encourage the use of the language. (In-service teacher, (2013, February 27) Interviewed by Rodríguez Carolina. Bogotá).  There was a clear example when a student asked the teacher to sing a song before the class, the teacher agreed and the motivation from the kids was incredible, after singing the song, they were wanting to participate, wanting to work and they were very excited about it.

REFERENCES

• In-service teacher (2013, February 27) Interviewed by Rodríguez Carolina. Bogotá.

• Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). TESOL Methods: Changing Tracks, Challenging Trends. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 1, March 2006. 

• Richards, J. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching Today. Found in: http://www.cambridge.org/other_files/downloads/esl/booklets/Richards-Communicative-Language.pdf. Pg. 2. 

• Rodríguez, C (2013). Field notes. PUJ, Bogotá.