TeachingEnglish
Ice-breaking session, classroom activities, common errors
Submitted by MarniJamil on 12 August, 2008 - 15:17
I would like to share some of my random experiences.
When I first started teaching, I did an informal ice-breaking session with my students for each class. They were asked to write about their hopes and expectations in our lessons. In my views, it has helped me understand my students better because I eventually try to come up with better classroom activities towards achieving successful English lessons. So do tell me all your hopes and fears! *winks*
So far, I think that the best tool to evaluate students' level of proficiency is through essay writing because it is easier to identify their strengths and weaknesses in using the role-plays, informal conversation such as giving opinions, asking questions, chit-chatting away. Moreover, we should never underestimate the power of classroom activities that include the active participation of the students such as role-plays which consist of dialogues, acts and authentic use of the language.
Besides that, vocabulary is also an important point that educators and learners need to consider in a language class. One of the common errors that students keep on doing is the habit of using the same words or phrases all the time due to lack of ideas. For instance, the word "thing" is being overly used. The other interesting matter is the usage of direct translation from their L1. As all of us know, L1 is also known as the first language or mother tongue while L2 is the second language. For instance, English does not have similar sentence structure as Bahasa Melayu so students need to be corrected because some of them could not identify their mistake if no one is taking the chance to assist them. Hence, it is important for all of us to identify the root or cause of such errors and correct them before they become apart of us. Now, that's going to be a nightmare.
Until we meet again. Take care.
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Comments
Hi,
I would first of all like to say that I absolutely agree with everything you have said in this specific posting, especially about the fact that students of any age should NEVER be underestimated! Each and every student is a being for themselves and even though we might not have much time throughout the term to include everybody's ideas (especially in larger groups of classes!!), we should at least acknowledge their diversity! This is what I do every class and what students appreciate very much in a teacher (I have noticed this through the questionnaires I give out at the end of every term). Unfortunately, there are situations in primary and elementary school (in my country, Macedonia) where the English teacher does not pay enough attention to role-playing and dialogues in the ELT class, and this is exactly the reason why those teachers are not a good example to their students. They are people who do not have any aspirations towards moving beyond the point that they are at at the moment!
However, I, on the other hand, am the total opposite of them, which is why I have to once more say that I share your ideas on teaching!
Regarding the mentioned ice-breakers, all of my experiences and reactions including them in class have been positive! I try to implement at least one short activity at the beginning of each class, having in mind the class itself and what I will be trying to teach those 90 minutes, so that there will be a smooth transition from the ice-breaker to the rest of the lesson. I DID have fears about them at the beginning of my teaching experience, especially about whether I might turn out to look like a fool if the activity was not as successful as I had planned it to be, or whether they might not understand the riddle, etc, etc. But I guess the reason for their success (according to me) is the fact that students (however large the group might be) learn to not only speak and write in English, but also to THINK in English, and to work in pairs! The questionnaires as well have seen many a positive comment, which is why I am not at all planning on leaving them out in the near future!
Best, Aneta