Verbal Corrective Feedback

TESL: #0120

T: What do you do in the morning?

S: Firstly, I get up and then I bath.

T: Do you mean you take bath.

S: Yes, I take bath.

T: After that, what else do you do?

S: I have breakfasts and go to the course.

T: Oh, you have breakfasts?

S: I have breakfast and go to the course.

T: Do you watch TV?

S: yes, I watch lots of television.

T: I watch television a lot.

S: yes, I watch television a lot.

T: Good! you did a great job. See you later.

S: Thank You. Bye.

Learner Personas: #TESL 0100

Here's our link to our created Learner Persona:

Learner persona

This exercise was an enlightening experience for both of us as it helped us to think more about different aspects, that we should consider while supporting the learners in the class because similar approach might not work for everyone. Also, the teacher’s awareness about the background and goals of the student helps teacher and learner both, as they start working towards achieving the same goal.

We enjoyed working on this together and are looking forward to your comments.

Needs Assessment: #TESL 0100

I found a Survey questionnaire in Needs assessment and learner Self-evaluation and particularly, I like the questionnaire on page II-10. The students will be given out the questionnaire to complete. 

This activity is to identify the reason why they are in the class and their level of English. I like this activity as it helps the teacher in identifying the “why” that brought the student to the classroom and provides a better understanding of students’ needs.

After completing the questionnaire, the students can be asked to walk around the classroom questioning each other on why they’re learning English. Another idea for this can be giving them cards or a sheet with different reasons listed on it and then ask the class whether they’re familiar with the reason listed on the sheet. The reasons can be for study, for travel, for business, for job etcetera. They can be given the option to add other reasons as well. 

The teacher can explain if any student is unable to understand any reason listed.

This activity is best with intermediate to advanced students but can be used for beginners as well. 

Pronunciation Corrective Feedback

TESL 0120

Hey Tina, in your speaking, I found that you dropped /l/ in the middle of words such as "help" a few times. Did you realize that?

Tina: No, I did not.

Teacher: can you say the word "help" for me, please?

Tina: "hep"(again misses the sound /l/)

Teacher:: Did you realize it now?

Tina: yes.

Teacher: Okay, so now we will focus on learning this sound and learn it.

Tina: Okay.

Teacher: /l/ is pronounced with a large flap of the tongue. bend your tongue as far back as you can in your mouth and flick it forward as you say /l/. look at me when I say "help". You see it?

Tina: Yes.

Teacher: Good! Now, we will try some words with the /l/ sound. Repeat each word after me. Lap.

Tina: Lap

Teacher: Play

Tina: Play

Teacher: You are doing great! Alive.

Tina: Alive.

Teacher: Love.

Tina: Love.

Teacher: Loyal.

Tina: Loyal.

Teacher: Excellent! Let's try one tongue twister. Lad Larry loves lyres.

Tina: Lad Larry loves lyres

Teacher: say it once again.

Tina: Lad Larry loves lyres

Teacher: Perfect Tina! You can practice some words at home as well from this list. Here is it.

Tina: Thank You.

List of the words:

1. alive                          2.fly

3.light                           4.long

5.lake                            6.lamp

7.lap                             8.late

9.lather                         10.lay

11.lead                         12.lot

13.loyal                         14.play

15.clash

Resources:

https://www.ac-orleans-tours.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/anglaisLP/dossier_ressources/practical_pronunciation_activities.pdf

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Greer-Pronunciation_of_LR.html

https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/minimal-pairs-l-r.htm

TESL 0120 Unit 2 Reflections

In this unit 2, we were to consider the effect of learner's first language on English pronunciation. I chose Hindi as my Language of research as I was born and raised in India and I learned English from formal schooling. I focussed on the areas of interference between Hindi and English, and after doing research, I found that in English,  the pronunciation of certain words does not strictly follow the written form whereas Hindi is a phonetic language, the word is pronounced according to its spelling. This leads to the mispronunciation of the English words by Hindi speakers. For example, There’s the silent k of know,  knight, and knot but Hindi speaker will say it with K sound.

Also, Hindi speakers sometimes replace /s/ for /z/.For example “House” has /s/ as the final sound whereas “noise” has /z/. They have issues with vowels and thus can not make the difference between “tell” and “tale” or “cot” and “caught”. Consonants clusters at the beginning or end of words are more common in English than Hindi. To exemplify: they pronounce  “e-street”  for “street” or add in an unstressed vowel, e.g. “filam” for "film".

Another major difference is the standard word order which in Hindi is Subject-Object-Verb as against Subject-Verb-Object in English. During my teaching experience, learners just used to translate the words into English without changing the word order. So, while translating, they might mistakenly say "I(s) football(o) play(v)". The difference between the tone, accent, and pronunciation can be clearly noticed when English is spoken by a Hindi speaker because they use the same phonology and intonation that they use for their own language. So, it is very important that while they learn English, they should learn phonetics and focus on pronunciation.

My "aha" moment in this course was when I read that "the teacher's principal role is to call attention to errors -on the spot or later-as unobtrusively as possible".[Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (2008) Teaching pronunciation: A reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, (pp.352)]. Feedback can be provided in a number of forms, but what is really important, is to ensure that learners hold on to this feedback.

Also, Chapter 13: “Teaching pronunciation” taught me that a teacher should ask the students to work towards an intelligible pronunciation, which means that their pronunciation should be good enough to be understood. This chapter also discussed various techniques and activities to work on student's pronunciation, with the help of which, I also created an activity.

Resources: http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/hindi.htm

https://elsaspeak.blog/2016/06/28/10-english-pronounciation-errors-by-hindi-speakers/

TESL 0120 Unit 1 Reflections

The unit delved into effective speaking and verbal corrective feedback. While doing the assigned reading by Scott Thornbury (2005) How to Teach Speaking, Chapter 2: What Speakers Know. This chapter discussed the knowledge base of the speakers, which affects their communication. For example, socio-cultural knowledge, which is very important as lack of it can cause misunderstanding and can cause offense as well.

There is linguistic knowledge also, that includes knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and phonology. One interesting thing that I find in this chapter was that "According to some estimates, a vocabulary of just 2,500 words covers nearly 95% of spoken text(compared to 80% of written text)"(Page:23). This really made me think. I think a teacher should always encourage the learner to incorporate new vocabulary in the speaking by giving them plenty of opportunities for this so that they do not fall into a level of comfort of using few words while making conversations. This is mainly true for the students who have reached a level of proficiency where they can carry out the conversations. 

Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching, Chapter 7: Feedback on Oral Work focussed on corrective feedback. I learned that ELLs want the corrective feedback as it offers them the opportunity to learn the language in contextual and purposeful ways. Corrective feedback should be focused and specific as the timing, frequency and way of feedback vary with it. For example, for fluency activities, the feedback should be delayed and for accuracy activities, error correction should be prompt. It is very important to recognize the student's attitude because that would help the teacher to opt the correct method of feedback for them.

Another significant take away from this unit is the Canadian Language Benchmarks document. I feel that this is an invaluable resource when working with language learners.

Overall, I learned a lot from this unit.

TESL 0100 Unit 2 Reflections

(Source: http://www.goodnewspilipinas.com/cultural-differences-affect-business/ )

For this unit, I read Chapter 6 &7 of Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. I learned that I may encounter different types of people in my class as an ESL teacher, they can come from different background, can belong to different age group age, can possess different ability and proficiency. They might have different learning strategies or no strategy at all. Each learner will be different and will have different need and goal so one method of teaching or lesson plan cannot be effective for everyone.

A teacher needs to formulate a different approach for teaching beginners, intermediate and advanced level students. This is true while teaching learners of different age as well. These variables should be considered while organizing a lesson, using techniques and activities and supporting material.

While going through this unit, I also learned about different types of English language courses offered in different parts of the world, some of which I never heard of. Also, I created a needs assessment activity for the first day of the class. The next step was to create Learner Personas which I did by collaborating with my classmate, Farideh.

Overall, I really enjoyed this unit.

References

H. Brown, H. L. (2015). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. .

TESL 0100 Unit 1 Reflections

(Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shift-mind/201006/who-am-i )

The first week of TESL course brought many challenges in front of me about which I was not aware of. I took up this course to achieve my goal of being an ESL teacher, I knew that it is an online course and it will involve technology but after looking at the course materials, I got a bit scared. However, with the help of my classmates and after searching a bit, I managed to create About me page, my Blog and Twitter account.

The first unit in this course “Who I Am & Who I Want to Become” made me think about myself and my goals. I introduced myself on the Forum and wrote about myself on the blog. I also created my PLN and got to expand it after looking at my classmates PLN. I also posted about my most memorable teacher and read about other’s posts on the topic which helped me learn the qualities that a good teacher should have.

Chapter 1 of Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy included a classroom observation of a well planned and executed lesson about student’s preferences, likes and dislikes in regards to “movies and entertainment”. I learned that a teacher has to make a lot of choices in the class while delivering a planned lesson and these choices decide the flow of a lesson and are learned through experience.

Chapter 8: Cultural and Socio-political Aspects of Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy reflected upon the relationship between language and culture. I agree that non-native English-speaking teachers get an additional advantage as they themselves have gone through the process of learning this language, it helps them to relate with learner’s difficulties and gives them the ability to simplify a target language.

My “aha” moment during this unit was when I read the introductions of my classmates. I learned about people from different backgrounds, with different experience who have so much passion for teaching which got me excited and gave me the courage to move ahead with this course.

References

H. Brown, H. L. (2015). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. .

My PLN(Personal Learning Network)

Speaking activity: #TESL 0120

Job Interview

Basic Idea: Students will be involved in a role play being an HR manager and job applicant.

Total Time: 15 minutes

Levels: Intermediate

Requirements: Students can be provided related vocabulary at the beginning.

The students will be given appropriate cards having at least 5 questions.

HR Manager Card: questions about the applicant’s education, related work experience, and expected salary

Applicant Card: It will include questions about company background, environment and job expectations

After they are done with the questions, they can move to the next HR Manager and next Applicant, depending upon the number of students and time. 

This activity will focus on sharing information.

The new beginning..