I.F.D.C. LENGUAS VIVASTALLER DE PRÁCTICA DOCENTE 2014

Trabajo Final de Evaluación Personal de la Práctica DocenteSegundo Período

I.F.D. Nº13

Alumna Practicante: López, Fernanda Emili Estefanía

Trabajo final de Evaluación Personal de la Práctica Docente

Segundo Período

IntroductionI started my second practicum period as an English teacher trainee at I.F.D.

N°13, once again. This time there were not any inconveniences to work in the primary

level. However, this is the only primary school which teaches English so this was my

first and only option. Before I started practicing, I had three observation sessions where

I was able to observe the dynamics that took place within the classroom, as well as the

teaching approach the course teacher used and how students reacted to such

approach.

I had to teach a fourth year class with 17 students. Most students of this group

had been in the school for three years before attending this fourth year class.

Therefore, students knew some vocabulary and expressions in English since it was the

fourth year they had been learning English. However, students did not make use of the

language during the lessons observed.

The approach the teacher used was mainly grammar-translation, because she

explained the topics making use of L1 and the focus was on the translation of the

words she taught. There was also a little bit of audiolingualism, as mechanical

exercises were done. Students were never challenged to use the target language to

imply real meaning. They only repeated what the teacher said. A difference I found with

the previous period was that they practiced English while reading aloud. However,

grammar rules and explanations were provided in their L1.

If I have to start thinking back so as to establish the first objectives I set and to

reflect about the second period of my practicum, I would say that the initial aim was to

improve different aspects as instructions and using L2 in the classroom with young

learners. At the same time, I wanted to be able toof recognizeing differences among

children of different ages and their different needs. When I met students, I instantly

thought that they could benefit from different types of activities and materials.

Therefore, I tried to use ICT whenever it was possible and to give students the

possibility of improving other skills apart from writing and speaking.

In my opinion, I made use of a lot of interpersonal skills and classroom

management strategies. As these were lessons of 40 minutes, I had to dedicate a lot

more time to lesson planning than I had previously done. I had to revisite different

authors from previous Didactics and I always had to take into account the fact that

students this age are quite enthusiastic about learning but their attention spam needs

to be maintained.

DevelopmentFirstly, I decided to focus on students’ needs by taking into account their age

and that this was their first encounter with English in a different way than they had

previously experienced it. As I was going teach 6 lessons, I decided I could try to give

students many ways of learning English by doing it in a fun and entertaining way.

Once again, I could notice it was a teacher-centered class. Moreover, students

were not used to speaking in English and to receiving instructions in this language

either. I think I developed a more communicative approach to teaching and learning.

Lessons were formed by a meaningful context in order to teach new language items. I

also made use of the technological tools and I took my own computer and audio

material for students to learn English in a different way.

I planned the six lessons I had to teach following the guidelines above. I tried to

improve my the aspect of giving instructions from the previous period and I tried to use

as much English as I could.

For the first lesson, I planned to revise commands in English. For doing this, I

introduced a character who was going to be used in a few lessons. His name was Mike

and he was a teacher and he was used to do a type of “Simon says…” game by using

TPR activities. This was a way of revising different commands that they already knew.

Then I introduced Mike’s friends and showed pictures of them. I think students really

liked working with visual material. They had to answer questions about them. I gave

them prompts with their information too. At In the end of the lesson, they wroite a letter

to Mike by choosing one of his friends and writing on his name. I felt excited with this

lesson because I felt comfortable while teaching this group of students.

The second lesson was quite interesting because I could use a listening

comprehension activity. I presented students a new character called May. I believe it

was the first time they did a listening in the classroom and this really motivated them to

learn the language. They answered questions and they had to listen to specific pieces

of information from the audio material. After this, they made questions on their own. I

took a monster to the lesson and it was hidden in a bag. Students had to make me

questions so as to guess which monster it was. Practice was done as regards the use

of “have got” and I believe the aim of the lesson was approached.

I really enjoyed the third lesson. We continued working with physical

descriptions. I gave them pictures of Violetta and of different people and animals for

them to describe. Once again, I used games for students to be motivated to continue

learning. This time I used “I spy with my little eye…” for them to guess the animals or

people I was thinking of. Students had the opportunity of practicing a lot of description

together with discussing people and animals’ abilities using “can”. Students developed

the ability of working in pairs too during these lessons.

In the fourth lesson with this group, students learnt how to describe their own

bedrooms. I tried to use one of the characters introduced in the previous lessons for

students to relate every lesson with one and other. Context was carefully chosen and

developed in every lesson. I showed them pictures of bedrooms and made descriptions

using “there is/there are”. This time I decided to work with the reading skill and

developed a reading comprehension activity. Students had to answer questions about

a bedroom’s description I designed. Then, they could work with the writing skill by

describing their dream room. They all had to draw it after that.

The fifth lesson was recorded and I was quite nervous. Luckily, I believe I could

teach an interesting lesson. I talked about Zapala and the places we can find here.

They first recognized different public building and then they learnt new prepositions of

place to give complete descriptions. We practiced this by using a big map and we

answered questions about places’ locations together. I then gave them a different map

and they had to complete a dialogue between two people. This was used as a

connection with the following lesson which aimed at teaching the giving directions.

The last lesson involved the use of maps but this time I used a map which had

the name of candies as its streets. This was used as a way of calling students’

attention from the very beginning. They revised places and instructions but then they

learnt which phrases would be appropriate for helping someone to get to a place.

Students could watch a video in this lesson and I think they really enjoyed this since it

hadn’t been done before. The video was explicit as regards the context of the different

situations one needs directions. Students ended the lesson giving directions on their

own.

If I have to think forward, I would change a couple of things. Once

again, it was difficult to plan lessons for students who did not speak English at all.

However, this group of students were quite interested in about learning English by

making use of it. Many of them liked reading aloud and enjoyed listening to other

people speaking in English. What is more, this time I appreciated being alone during

the period since I could reflect about what I was doing by comparing it with the previous

period. Nevertheless, if it think inward about this situation, I felt excited and pleased of

completing another period. I felt comfortable with this group of students and with their

interest in learning English. I believe a lot can be done with any of the groups from this

primary school. However, it takes a lot of effort and dedication to do it so.

ConclusionAt the end of my second practicum period I believe I could change a lot of

things from the first period. I tried to put a lot of focus on the selection of material and

the design of activities which would benefit students. I think this was achieved and I felt

completely happy when it ended. I decided to do both periods in the last part of 2014

and I did it and the reward is greater than I had expected.

Once again, I think these students experienced a different approach to the

learning of a foreign language. I know it is important to take into account the conditions

where students learn, in this case they were not so good. However, with a bit of effort

from the part of the teachers, a lot can be done. It was pointed out by the Headmistress

that many students from this institution cannot attend private institutions to learn

English. Therefore, students really appreciate learning English at school and we should

take this into account when planning and designing activities for them.

This time I did not receive as much feedback as I received in the previous

period. Nevertheless, if I have to think outward about this experience, I think it is not a

matter of the amount of time students receive English lessons. I have to say that after

doing the proper research for the previous instances before starting the lessons, I

found out there are not any English teachers in this institution. They are all teachers but

do not have the degree of English ones, they have some courses done in English.

Maybe this is one of the causes why lesson planning and curriculum design is not

appropriate for this primary institution. Hopefully, this will be changed in the future and

students will receive proper language lessons.