In the first exercise, we had to guess if the sentences were wrong. If they were wrong, and if they were, we had to add a, an, or the into the sentences. I was kind of sorry to arrive in late; but I tried to participate actively to pay that debt. Basically, the instructor provided a spoken output, which was an input for the students, and the students had to look for the errors. When I had problems understanding what the instructor was saying, she continuously tried to convert the meaning. The professor interrupted the process, which helped me to get what the instructor was saying, but I was sort of disappointed with the results. I would have rather preferred if the instructor kept trying to provide an understandable input.
The instructor looked confused to see me complete the sentences early. Thinking back, I should have gone over the exercise while giving more chances for the other student to figure out the answers. (But that was one of the roles that the instructor had to perform.)
Therefore, this activity was meaningful in that the students able to create speaking text with purposes. It was also comprehensible, as the instructor made sure if the students had understood her correctly.
This exercise served the sole goal of pedagogical, if the students had correct understanding of grammar. I thought that this concept was pretty new; most of the exercises like these are provided as reading input, not listening input. I thought that making the students write down the answers, instead of providing speaking output at the same time, would be better, as there was a problem regarding the answers being spoken too quickly. This way, the instructor may able to manage time better.
For the second exercise, the pairs were each given a situation: that one of the pairs was late for a pick-up session. However, it was disappointing to see the instructor being reluctant to conduct this activity at the beginning of the task. My group(pair) conducted a simulation and continued the activity in spoken form, while the other group prepared a hastily produced script. I thought that both ways had their good aspects.
This activity served real-life goals, as the conversation conducted by the students were likely to be said in daily lives. Probably more specific instructions would have allowed the students to talk more: like time, why, what they will do, and etc. as my group continued the conversation by these aspects to be discussed by the professor. Maybe also encouraging the students to take small notes for the conversation simulation later could be the instructors role.
2.Take a look at the pictures
Stars for the activity:
In this activity, the materials given were the pieces of paper with pictures printed in color. As individuals, we had to each write down what we thought about the pictures. What I realized during the session was that the people from the other group were not writing down anything at all. The instructor seemed to notice this, but said nothing. So I was the one to point this out. It was then the instructor provided the pens out. It took more time for the students to write the words down then; this means that the the instructor did not manage time in an effective way. Then, as pairs, the groups had to discuss about what they wrote. For our group, we started by talking about what both of us had written down. After that, I told my pair about what I had wrote. We did not necessarily discuss how we will present the contents, and thus finished a bit early. The other group was still on a hot talk. We waited for them for some time; then the instructor got anxious and tried to lead us to the next activity. However, it did not work well. My partner was working on her phone because she did not think we were moving on. The instructor gave up on moving forward and told us to wait. When it was time for the groups to present, the instructor did not really organize the groups. What I understood was for the each group to talk about all of the pictures. However, professor interrupted and the instructions were altered so that each student only talk about one picture each. It went well, but I thought that the instructor had to hold a firm line then. Too much control over the students are harmful, but the professor was not really a student
Therefore, this activity was meaningful in that the students able to create meaningful outputs that expressed their thoughts. However, the interaction aspect looked lacking than what was planned. Although the first presenter did not understand what she had to talk about, I thought that the presentation session was not that bad. But there was this impression that the instructor was slurring her words and did not really decide on what the students should talk about. This is because I think that it is an instructors role to provide the way for the students on what they should talk about. Other than that, I thought that the instructor should encourage the students talk more with some specific suggestions(as mentioned above). The exercise was also comprehensible, because the students explained more in detail when the others were confused with what they were talking about. . To add, the activity served its pedagogical goal to make students discuss and speak with intentions, while serving real-life goals of explaining ones ideas. The students had to be involved in both speaking and writing actively, although they were not too enjoyed.
In other words, the instructor struggled in explaining the activity, so I thought that she would have to clarify her activity by being more detailed, just like how I pointed out in her last activity. She also still lacked of confidence, so I would have preferred her to prepare her activities more specifically and thoroughly for more confidence.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 13 Reflections for Wonderful
First, my activity was to find the errors of articles (a/an/the) in the sentences. This was originally a pair work in which one person reads a sentence aloud and the other only finds out the wrong part of the sentence by listening.And I had prepared two kinds of papers so that both of them could take turns participating. However, I just read the sentences myself because the students did not come on time, so I failed to manage the time.My original plan was to focus on improving the students' listening skills and speaking skills, helping the two pairs to read each other alternately and to concentrate on each other's words, but frankly it was a shame that it did not work out as my plan. Even so, I think I served the pedagogical goals which were to make the students to be familiar with grammar and to help them to listen carefully what others saying so that they could be fully satisfied with their listening skills. After this activity,I wondered if I could have used my time more efficiently if my students had written down the answers on the paper instead of saying the answers.
The second activity I prepared was a role play and this was also a pair work. First, I presented a specific situation to the students and let them to make a short situational play. My partner and I practiced by writing scripts together and thinking together, but I saw that the other team just practiced by exchanging words without writing any scripts. Also, when our team was writing the script while consulting each other, the person sitting right next to me seemed to have kept looking at us and burdened us. Actually, practicing without script is not the wrong way, but to avoid talking too informally when having a conversation, I would recommend that person to write script from next time. Anyway, my second activity also served real-life goal to be confident in having a conversation freely in daily lives. Overall, I planned to focus on the interaction aspect for these two activities.
lJi Wons activity
In this activity, the instructor gave us a paper with several pictures in color so that we could catch the basic messages they were trying to convey and actually they were the paintings that satirize social issues. First of all, we took a look at above four paintings individually without speaking and then we had to write down statements about them, describing what we see or what our opinions of it are. After having done that, we had to share our statements with our partner and decide on group statements about what we see and think on each painting. The last thing we had to do was to present the statements. It was meaningful in that the students could speak their opinions freely and compare the different views on specific issues that each person has based on their personal experiences with their own. Thus, I think the instructor served the pedagogical goal of her activity very well and it was also comprehensible. However, I felt that the leader would speak more and not just the students, but also the instructor would give some examples of her own experiences or opinions to make this activity more active. Of course, student-oriented activities are good, but in this case, the instructors role seemed to have been too lacking. Overall, it was meaningful in many ways and it was a good opportunity for everyone to discuss or speak with intentions.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 13 Reflections for Wonderful
We did two activities this time. The first one was the activity finding out the omitted or wrong articles in the sentences by listening to So-Jins speaking. (So-Jin said that it was originally a pair work, but we did it altogether because there was an unexpected situation.)
Through this activity, the speaker could practice speaking precisely by having a chance to check her pronunciation and the pause point. Listeners could practice focused listening because they have to find out some errors in the sentences through listening.
This activity seems to have a pedagogical goal which is teaching article. Being compared to other grammar lessons which are boring and formal, I think this activity has a balance between maintaining pedagogical goal and students interest. However, the activity was a little bit disappointing because the given sentences werent that meaningful. I think it would have been more effective if the given sentences had been related to more meaningful subject.
In the second activity, students in pairs make a script based on a given situation and they present the script.
The given situation was that two friends were supposed to meet at 9:00a.m, but one of them showed up 2 hours later. So one student had to write an apology note and an excuse, and the other student had to write an interrogation and blaming note.
The given situation reflects the real world, so student could practice expressing the real world situation and they could get more involved in the activity.
In general, the activity was interesting. However, I think the whole activity would have been more systemic if the second activity had been related to the first one.
Ji-Wons activity
On this activity, students are supposed to look at some pictures and then write down what they see and feel. After that they share their writing with their partners and team members.
I prepared the paintings that satirized society because I wanted my materials to be meaningful. I thought that the paintings contain various issues to be talked about and I hoped that the students could discuss various social issues at the end of the activity. However, it seemed fail.
The students seemed to lose their interest and participated passively. Besides they looked like they didnt understand what they were doing and why they were doing it. I think the problem was that the materials were not interesting enough to draw students attention and my explanation of the goal of this activity wasnt enough. I didnt prepare any warm up activity at the beginning of the lesson either.
I realized once again that it is so hard to design teaching materials which are both pedagogic and entertaining, and even when the aim of the activity is great, still the activity can be failed if the manner of the activity is not well designed.
