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      TeachingEnglish
      English Teaching
      Submitted by Abdussami on 13 May, 2010 - 14:44

      In foreign countries like Pakistan, why the so called English teachers only spend ten minutes in the class and let the students work together on their own.

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      small9's picture
      small9
      Hi, what class is that?
      Submitted on 14 May, 2010 - 03:28

      Is that a speaking class? That might happen that the teacher would like to let student practice as much as possible. However, the teacher should participate by guiding and aiding, too.

      In my speaking class in China, i'm cutting down my talking time to minimum and let students talk most of the time. I play a role as listener and guide, and problem solver, sometimes.

      You might want to talk to the teacher about your feedback? If the teacher listens, he/she will understand and might change his/her teaching plan to suite the students better.

      Good luck!

       

      Cheers

      Small9

      in China

      Heath's picture
      Heath
      Monitoring
      Submitted on 19 May, 2010 - 02:17

      If the teacher spends 10min talking at the beginning of the lesson, then leaves the students to work in groups for 30-40min while the teacher does nothing... well, that's obviously a problem.

      But if the teacher spends 10min, in total across the class, setting up activities, giving feedback, helping students understand new language, etc... then MONITORS carefully and attentively for 30-40min... might that not be the best way to help students improve?

      There's a lot for the teacher to do while monitoring:

      • Diagnose learners strengths and areas of need in relation to skills & fluency.
      • Diagnose the same for language awareness and use (grammar, vocab, etc).
      • Be available as a resource when the students have questions (eg. act as a dictionary, translator, grammar reference book, etc).
      • Prompt, provide encouragement, and provide ideas for extending communication.
      • Take notes on good language use for confirmation and reinforcement during feedback.
      • Take notes on inaccurate or ineffective language use for correction.
      • See what activities each student:  is (not) good at; (don't) like; speak/write more/less during... assessing both the activities and the students individual needs and interests.
      • Decide whether to adapt or alter the lesson plan reflecting the above.
      • Decide what language or skills to work on in future lessons based on the above.
      • etc... etc...

      So I believe being able to observe and monitor while students do pair, group, or solo work can be of great help for teacher and learners.

      small9's picture
      small9
      Good point!
      Submitted on 25 May, 2010 - 04:41

      Good point, Health. Thanks for the sharing. The teacher is busy enough even he/she is not talking. haha...