The teacher started the class with a warm up: brain storming and some questions; there was when students were recycling the grammar acquired in previous classes…It could be inferred, because the teacher mentioned constant references to the topic checked a day before.- After a linkage and a vocabulary presentation as well as a vocabulary activity, the teacher proceeded to have the first presentation of the class. The grammar topic was simple past and she neither gave formulas nor mentions grammatical rules during her presentation. She elicited student’s examples (after four of her own ideas) and after that she had three drills.{ during the eliciting, the students participation was great, but when the first drill was performed some of them were a little lost; however because of her monitoring the teacher realized about the problem and with student’s cooperation she helped them to get a better understanding}
- She had three presentations the first one affirmative and interrogative, the second one negative and interrogative and in the last one she gathered the three forms. After the first and the second presentations she had three drills, in those drills the students had oral, written and listening activities where they were practicing the grammar stuff that the teacher had given them. The activities after the third presentation were an application of the grammar topic in a real situation activity.
- the teacher ends the class by telling them what the grammar topic name was and the construction and usage of it. After practicing the grammar topic where the four skills where integrated all the time
- All the class was given in English, and if the students wanted to know a word they had to explain it to the teacher. The teacher as well did not speak Spanish at all; instead she used body language, gestures and examples
The class was communicative and dynamic which was great for students because they had fun while they learnt. Some students were cooperative however some others were kind of moody and lazy; but the teacher solved it by having personalization in her class, so as the moody and lazy students were having topics they like, little by little they became more interested in the class.- It has been considered that the class was really communicative even though the teacher talking time was a little bit longer when giving directions to the students. Another aspect to be emphasized is the weakness of the consolidation part; she could have another exercise instead of just writing the grammar formula and its different usages.
Conclusion:
- Grammar was used during all the class; when the teacher was recycling information and during the presentation of the new topic; and of course through all the drills. The students were having communicative exercises and as they were working in pairs, trios or small groups, the peer correction was presented all the time.
- In general the class was communicative, the grammar information was taught in a very inductive way, and the student’s necessity to know about grammar rules was satisfied at the end of the class after a great amount of practice during the class.
13 comentarios:
Hello, Arely. I consider the teacher-SS interaction succesful . On the other hand , I liked the way teacher mixed the approaches in order to be flexible and takinf into account SS needs. Information recycling as well as correction among SS are techniques I consider useful when teaching not only grammar also any other skill. I only would like to know SS English level as well as what the topic was since I consider important in order to undestand the method clearer.
Arely:
It´s a liitle difficult to believe that in only one class the teacher without explaining anything to the students they understood all the implications on how to form the past tense.
Could you mention or explain some of the drills you mention she did?
Elsa Stahl
Hello Arely!
It seems to be that you did a great research and detailed observation of your study case. What I have to emphasize here is that inductive approach “starts with some examples from which a rule is inferred” (Thornbury, 2001) as it is appreciated in your study case, how the lesson was taught step by step to get students engaged into the grammar structure, (as I would rather you could mention the type of grammar taught), I could also infer how the communicative and transformational approach was taught. I know the students are at College which means that sometimes teachers have to take into account their students needs (as you mentioned) and the most important how the teacher guided their students during this process, I would also like to suggest that the teacher could include a little about Pedagogical grammar as it I also a great tool when teaching grammar. Odlin mentions (1994) that pedagogical grammar should be concrete, simple, nontechnical, and cumulative, close to popular/traditional notions and in rule-of-thumb form and the design criteria are single out, truth, clarity, simplicity, predictive value (precisely defining forms-meaning relations) conceptual parsimony (being within the learner’s current understanding) and relevance (taking account of L1-L2 contrast and hypothesizing interlanguage rules). This is because you mentioned that students had a great amount of practice and the teachers talking time was extended giving instructions, so we have to remember when you are teaching grammar you have to be concrete and economical in order to become relevance and significant in the students’ learning, lots of examples and extending what they have already understood allow students’ boredom.
I like a lot you activity!!!
Reference List
Thornbury, S. (1999) Teach Grammar. England: Longman
Odlin, T. (1994) Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar. Cambridge Applied Linguistics
Hi Arely:
I really liked the way you presented your case study and your blog´s visual presentation is different from ours. I assume you have already worked with blogs before. I couldn´t find your partner´s name anywhere, sorry if I skipped it. I guess it was a one-hour class, Am I wrong? From my experience, simple past is one of the most important and extensive topics so it usually takes me from two to three sessions to really accomplish the issue. (introducing and rehearsing pronunciation on regular and irregular verbs, teaching the main subject with its transformations and finally practicing the four skills). I assume your partner went straight to the main topic.
Regards. José Luis Martínez.
hi Arely:
I really aoreciate the way that you present your blog and information.
I think that the past tense sometimes is a little bit difficult to explain, more when you have a mixed group. I mean when you have students that know the topic and others that not. But the most important is that you find the way for explaining it better. For me this tense takes me two or three classes, because I go step by step and in this way I don´t let any dought into my students. And they assimilate the main idea when I mix tenses that are important for them and he realia.
Hi Arely, you got a point, consolidation seems to me to be a rather usual problem among our teachers. Obviously to reach that stage, a great deal of practice has to be done. Most classes, however, seem to stop at the practice stage,further practice and consolidation are very often forgotten stages of lessons everywhere. There's a great deal of follow up activities which could help us roud up our lessons. Octavio
Hi Arely,
I can also tell after reading your
blog, that this is a well experienced teacher who knows how to deal with whatever problem arises. You do not mention the number of students and their level of English however since the grammatical topic is simple past I guess they are at a beginning level.It was very good that the teacher spoke in English all the time and pushed her students to use the language too. I agree with you that consolidation stage is important mostly if this was the first time the structure was introduced.
Well the student's level is basic they are a B2 students, they spend two months in each level, so they have been studing english for about two months and a half. The Topic was childhood. I it was a nice class because personalization was shown most all along the class.
Actually they do not learnt all the implications of the grammar tense taught, however at the end of the class, during the consolidation and the application the students were able to use the language to talk about past evens [in this case about their childhood]. The drills were mechanical, meaningful and communicative. After she elicit formation in her presentations and stablished a model or pattern that students followed, she had a mechanical activity that reinforced the previous examples. It was a question with 7 controlled answers were very basic verbs {ate, ran, visitied, went, wrote, etc} were used; the second activity consists about writing where students have to 1 answer some questions in pairs 2 write down the information that they just have disscused 3 Report the information { written} to another student. 3 the thrid drill wa cool and they liked it a lot: the teacher presents a picture slide show, then around the classroom there are around 20 different questions {about the ss childhood} [the pictures are used as a brain booster]the students {small groups} are going to speak about that age not ansking and answering questions but taking the questions as a guide and the pictures as helpers to generate Ss's ideas
Actually they do not learnt all the implications of the grammar tense taught, however at the end of the class, during the consolidation and the application the students were able to use the language to talk about past evens [in this case about their childhood]. The drills were mechanical, meaningful and communicative. After she elicit formation in her presentations and stablished a model or pattern that students followed, she had a mechanical activity that reinforced the previous examples. It was a question with 7 controlled answers were very basic verbs {ate, ran, visitied, went, wrote, etc} were used; the second activity consists about writing where students have to 1 answer some questions in pairs 2 write down the information that they just have disscused 3 Report the information { written} to another student. 3 the thrid drill wa cool and they liked it a lot: the teacher presents a picture slide show, then around the classroom there are around 20 different questions {about the ss childhood} [the pictures are used as a brain booster]the students {small groups} are going to speak about that age not ansking and answering questions but taking the questions as a guide and the pictures as helpers to generate Ss's ideas
Jose Luis
well yes that tense is realy important and necessary for students to manage it. The teacher went straight to the topic, however she mentioned [after class and in a sort of interview] that she was going to check it [the grammar topic] during the next four days, of course integrating it with other previous grammar structures. Obviously the thing that changes is the general class topic; for example she mentioned that the next class she was going to have a class about the first date. So she reinforced simple past all the week using a variety of topics, what I consider makes her class interesting.
Arelly,
It was useful to know a bit more about the class you observed. By the way, i liked your blog
Susy
hello !
This is a pretty blog design! I would like to ask some questions, When you introduce a new tense like this , I suppose students must have a backround on what past tense refers, I mean, you didn´t introduce contrast tense between present and past, I eat junk food- I ate junk food, did they knew what were you talking about? Giving direct past sentences without any remarkable grammar contrast that divides what they already know and what they are about to learn?. Was it really posible to integrate the 4 skills in one class with one NEW topic? Were they supposed to know past pronunciation? Were the verbs involved in listening the same as in class practice? Well, wonderful blog, and I liked your detail explanation-process, but only these few questions came out to my mind? greetings!!!
Gricel
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