TESL 110 Unit 3 Reflection

(Source: https://elearningindustry.com/elearning-corrective-feedback-importance-approach )

The Unit 3 was about providing corrective feedback to the students and assessing them. In the unit, we explored various writing activities for different student levels and contexts. After that, I took the quiz on myths and misconceptions about corrective feedback and there were two myths which made me think.

"Rather than correcting student, it's better to get students to correct themselves."My answer to this question was true but when I read this question at first, I got confused for a moment and thought of answering it as false as well. The reason being that what if the students does not even know how to correct himself.
When I thought deeply about it, I realized that its not enough that teacher always points out the mistakes of students, they should also demonstrate the student to correct himself so that he can keep that thing in mind and double check it while proof reading. I think just marking the correct does not help but explaining why it was marked incorrect and how to make it correct is what would help student learn and improve.

"The teacher should be selective when correcting mistakes."My answer to this question was True which is incorrect because I thought that all the errors should be corrected by the teacher to ensure student's improvement. However, I came to learn that purpose of correction should be taken into consideration. For example, if the students have completed their lesson on prepositions and teacher has given them an exercise to write few sentences using the learned prepositions. Now, if in those sentences, teacher should correct the mistakes related to prepositions but if a student is using articles incorrectly, teacher should not point that out. This is my understanding. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and please correct me if I am wrong.

We also assessed a writing sample and determined the grammatical needs. I really enjoyed this unit.

Reference:

Harmer, J. (2001). Chapter 7: Mistakes and feedback . In Harmer, J. (Eds.), The practice of English language teaching (pp. 99-104 & 109-113). Essex, England: Longman.

TESL 0110: Unit 2: Grammar activity

(Source: https://hubbub.org/p/ActItOutFundraisingPage/ )

Grammar activity: “Act it out”

Context: 10 young students in a government funded school

Level: CLB 4-5

Objective: Students will learn about the verbs and adverbs

Material Needed: Cards labelled with Verb-Adverb Pair

The students will learn about the verbs and adverbs in the game activity called act it out. The class will be divided into two teams. One student will come in the front from one of the team and then pull out one card randomly. Then, that student will need to act out the verb written on the card. For example: The verb written was “eat”. While the student act out the verb, both the teams will guess it and the team which guesses it first, will earn one point. After this, the same student will have to act out the adverb written. For example the adverb was “swiftly”. In the same way, teams will try to guess the adverb and earn a point for it. 

After on student is done, another student will come to the front from the opposite team. Every student will get 3 minutes(can be more or less) to act out the verb-adverb pair. Every student will get a chance to perform and in the end, the team with more points will be the winner.

If the students who has to perform, is not aware of the word, teacher will help her out.

If no team can guess the word, then teacher will explain the word.

All the verb-adverb pairs will be written on the board one by one and at the end, teacher will discuss the words and Ask the students to write the sentences using these words.

Verb-Adverb pairs:

Eat-silently	Walk-Quickly	Sing-Happily
Touch-Gently	Speak-Politely	Laugh-Loudly
Listen-Seriously	Write-Neatly	Fall-Accidentally
Answered-Correctly	Listened-Carefully	Run-Slowly
Push-Gently	Think-Deeply	Drive-safely

Resources:

Fun Grammar Activities.(n.d.) Retrieved from:  https://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson334.shtml

TESL 0110 Unit 2 Reflection

(Source: https://vivaling.com/language-teaching-methodologies-changed-matter/ )

English grammar is notoriously difficult to learn for both native and second-language speakers. There are so many intricacies, obscure rules, and exceptions that it comes as no surprise that different generations of teachers have used various approaches to teaching grammar.

In this unit,I learned about a few grammar teaching methods such as grammar translation, direct method, audio-lingual, Communicative language teaching, and task-based learning. Every method is beneficial in certain situations and has its own disadvantages as well. 

I would like to discuss the direct method and Task-based learning.

The direct method of teaching was developed as a response to the Grammar-Translation method. It sought to immerse the learner in the same way as when a first language is learned. All teaching is done in the target language, grammar is taught inductively, there is a focus on speaking and listening, and only useful ‘everyday' language is taught. The weakness in the Direct Method is its assumption that a second language can be learned in exactly the same way as a first, when in fact the conditions under which a second language is learned are very different.

As we know that English grammar is very complex, and all its intricacies cannot truly be learned by rote, they must be really understood – and understanding is most easily achieved when students are engaged, interested and having fun during a lesson. Task-based learning offers the student an opportunity to do exactly this. In a task-based lesson, the teacher doesn't pre-determine what language will be studied, the lesson is based around the completion of a central task and the language studied is determined by what happens as the students complete it. 

Following are the characteristics of a task-based learning:

-Students are encouraged to use language creatively and spontaneously through tasks and problem solving

-Students focus on a relationship that is comparable to real-world activities

-The conveyance of some sort of meaning is central to this method

-Assessment is primarily based on task outcome

-Task-based learning is student-centered

Resources:

Thornbury, S. (1999). How to teach grammar, Chapter 2: Why teach grammar? pp. 21-27. Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited.

A Task-based approach. (June, 2014). British Council. Retrieved from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/a-task-based-approach

Direct Method. (July, 2008). British Council. Retrieved from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/direct-method

TESL 0110 Unit 1 Reflection/ aha moment

(Source: http://optimizingimmersion.com/teaching-grammar-and-telling-stories/ )

My "aha" moment in unit one was going through the chapter "Why teach grammar". It was very interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. As I was going through the arguments, I could not agree more with these as. All the arguments seem to be valid for me.

Here, I would like to mention my thoughts on a few arguments.

The first one is The advance-organizer argument. I agree with it. While I was developing my English vocabulary(still working on it), I add a new word to my vocabulary diary and after that suddenly I start to notice that word being mentioned at various places, can be in news, book, movie etcetera and it gets retained in my mind. I don't feel like I had to put much effort into remembering that word and I learned it in context as well. 

The second argument I want to talk about is the communication argument. I read the two schools of thought. The first one says, to learn the rules and then apply them in communication while the second one says to directly engage in communication to learn the language. It was mentioned that studying the rules of grammar is simply a waste of time and I do not agree with it. I think learning the grammar develops confidence that you are using the language correctly and I think that confidence is very important in order to become fluent in that language. 

The third argument I want to talk about is the acquisition argument. I agree that second language can be acquired in a way we acquired our first language that is by exposing ourselves to the environment where the target language is spoken. I think getting that environment is not always possible. When I used to teach in India, I used to teach grammar, the students were very well aware of the rules but they just used to get the English speaking environment in the class because outside the class, they used to speak their own language as they do not get many English speakers to communicate to. Hence, the lack of application of those rules and difficulties in getting hold of the language. I once had to write an essay on the topic that " the best way to learn English is to move to the English speaking country. Do you agree or disagree?" I agreed with this. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. 

Resources:

Thornbury, S. (1999). Chapter 2: Why teach grammar, In Harmer, J. (Ed.), How to teach grammar (pp. 14-28). Harlow: Longman.

TESL 0100 Unit 8 Lesson Plan 3

Here is the link to our lesson Plan on Christmas.

Lesson Plan 3

TESL 0100 Unit 9 Reflection

What is Digital literacy?

Cornell University defines digital literacy as “the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet.” Digital literacy, by this definition, encompasses a wide range of skills, all of which are necessary to succeed in an increasingly digital world

Digital literacy has now become an essential skill in this 21st century. Nowadays, whether it's applying for a job, checking the online movie reviews, booking a train ticket or filling in an online form requires digital literacy. It has become as important as the other skills such as speaking, listening, reading or writing.

Considering the importance of digital literacy, it has become utmost important to teach students digital literacy in the classroom.

Most students already use digital technology, such as tablets, smartphones, and computers, at home. Many students already know how to navigate the web, share images on social media, and do a Google search to find information. However, true digital literacy goes beyond these basic skills.

Ways to incorporate digital literacy in the classroom

Use an interactive whiteboard as often as possible to design and deliver lessons. 

Allow student teacher-created blogs, wikis, web pages related to their learning.

Engage in email/video chat exchanges with students from other countries.

Utilize storytelling media to allow students to create and publish stories.

Set up a blog site/Facebook page and post weekly discussion questions for students to respond to. Encourage them to respond to each other too!

Use video cameras to dramatize stories, record scientific experiments and expose students to video editing software to create video productions of learning.

Engage students in discussions about how and why various media work well to showcase learning and why others do not. Thinking critically about the medium use use to  present a message is just as important as the message itself.

Resources:

Haynes, Jeremy (2018, AUGUST 2). 3 Ways to Enrich Digital Literacy in the Classroom. Retreived from: https://tophat.com/blog/3-ways-to-enrich-digital-literacy-in-the-classroom/

Ascher, Alison (2017, September 8). Integrating Digital Literacy and Language Instruction. Retreived from: https://edtech.worlded.org/digital-literacy-second-language-instruction/

Purposeful Technology-Constructing Meaning in 21st Century Schools (n.d.) How Can we Embed Digital Literacy into the classroom? Retreived from: http://purposefultechnology.weebly.com/how-can-we-embed-digital-literacy-in-the-classroom.html

TESL 0100 Unit 8 Reflection

(Source: https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/rural-health-research-assessment-evaluation :

The Unit 8 "How do I assess Language Learning?" was all about assessment. In this, I learned about the types of assessments and compared these.

Diagnostic Assessment	Formative assessment	Summative assessment
This assessment is done at the beginning of the learning.	This assessment is used during the learning process.	This assessment comes at the end of the learning.
This is used to know about the strengths of the learner, to know their background knowledge, areas of improvement so that next steps can be taken.	This is used by teachers so that they can modify the teaching methodology and activities in order to improve the learner's performance.	This is used to understand and record the overall achievement of the learners.
This generally includes a set of written questions and can be graded.	This assessment is not graded and provides feedback on learning.	This assessment is graded and evaluates student against some benchmark.
Example: Background knowledge survey, ungraded quiz	Example: in class discussions, reflections, surveys.	Example: Standardized tests, final presentations.

I tried to compare the three types of assessments. Apart from this, I found a very good example while searching on the internet which describes the difference between Formative and Summative assessment.

"Paul Black (1998), who is often lauded as the forefather of these concepts, described the difference between these terms using the analogy of cooking. As a cook is making her soup, she occasionally tastes it to decide if it needs a bit more spices or ingredients. With each taste she is assessing her soup, and using that feedback to change or improve it - in other words, the cook is engaging in formative assessment. Once the soup is served to the customer, the customer tastes it and makes a final judgment about the quality of the soup – otherwise known as summative assessment." 

Resources: 

Teaching and Learning in higher education (n.d.). Assessment strategies. Retrieved from:

http://www.queensu.ca/teachingandlearning/modules/assessments/index.html  

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed. revised). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

TESL 0110 Grammar Needs Assessment Unit 1

(Source: https://djj.georgia.gov/assessment )

Grammar Needs assessment

Survey Questionnaire

Purpose:This survey questionnaire activity is to identify the knowledge of students grammar and identify their grammar needs.

Process: Give this form to the students. Discuss and explain the questions in the survey in the class, ask them to write down their responses.

Name:

1. Why are you studying English?

2. Describe the English language courses you have taken in the past.

3. Have you ever studied Grammar?

4. How do you rate your English language skills?

5. What is your best English language skill? Put check mark on the ones that apply.   Reading   Writing   Listening   Speaking   Grammar   Pronunciation

6. Which of the following grammar terms are you familiar with? Put check mark on the ones that apply.   Noun   Pronoun   Preposition   Adjective   Verb   Subject   Object

7. Do you find Grammar interesting?

8. What types of activities do you enjoy doing in class?

TESL 0100 Unit 7 Reflection

(Source: http://www.hatchearlylearning.com/view-webinar/positive-and-effective-classroom-management-tips )

The unit 7 was about classroom management and I learned about the various situations that can arise in the class and how a teacher can handle those situations. This unit also talked about building inclusive classroom. Having an inclusive classroom means creating a supportive environment for all learners irrespective of their difference. I think the first step towards creating an inclusive classroom can be to teach the students to respect the people from all the backgrounds and cultures so that they develop an understanding environment. A teacher can have an open and healthy discussion about differences and respecting people of different abilities. A teacher should teach the learners to respect and trust each other and create a helping environment in the class. A teacher should ensure that all the students are participating in the class and provide them with opportunities to respond.

To support learners who may be suffering from trauma, mental health issues and physical disabilities, Teacher needs to be flexible with the teaching methodology and needs to incorporate different teaching methods to accommodate all the students. The teacher can encourage the students to ask questions if they do not understand anything and always listen to them patiently and attentively.

To support the LGBTQ learners in the class, I think teachers need to be very careful about their own language in the class and should refrain from using the language which can hurt their sentiments. Teachers need to set an example in front of the other students that how LGBTQ learners should be treated and respected. They should not be made to feel that they are different. For example, a teacher should refer to them with their preferred name and pronoun in the class.

We also discussed about how much time teacher and learners should talk in the class because if the teacher is talking for most of the time, the class will become monotonous and learners might lose their interest and divert their attention somewhere else. This can also result in no learning as the students are not speaking at all. If the teacher is taking most of the times, then it is clear that why students are not learning because they are not implementing that learning, the learners should get the chance to speak, raise questions and not just respond. One way of doing it is that the teacher should explain the topic and encourage the students to ask the question and encourage the other students to answer it rather than directly answering it himself.

Talking about the control in the classroom, I think the teacher should control the classroom as far as maintaining discipline in the class is concerned. This is necessary to ensure that all the students are focused and are paying attention in the class. However, students should also have some control over the learning process and teacher needs to be flexible with it.

Resources:

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed. revised). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education

Resources

Teacher Resources

CCLB bookshelf

Online Canadian Language Benchmark

Assessment

Assessing Learner Needs in the Adult ESL Classroom

Digital Formative Assessment Tools

Formative Assessment Tools

Reading Text Assessment Tool

Free Image websites

Photos for class

Pics4learning

Unsplash

Pixabay

Online Tools

seesaw: A platform for student engagement. Free for teachers.

screencast-o-matic: It's a free online tool that allows you to record videos and audio while recording your computer screen.

readable

wordle.net: Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide.

snappywords: It’s an online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words.

Coggle: is a freeware mind-mapping web application.

IELTS Canada Test: It will show you the adjusted IELTS score equivalent for Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.

Digital tools to create quizzes

Kahoot

Classmaker

GoConqr

Quizizz

Quizlet

Useful Websites

English Club : A free website for learners and teachers of English

Rosetta Stone : A great website which provides different lessons and activities to learn a new language.

ESL Library : A great website with different lessons and quizzes suitable for both teachers and students

http://myenglishonline.ca/ : This is an online learning program for permanent resident of Manitoba.

https://bogglesworldesl.com : It is a valuable site for teenage and adult learners. With hundreds of worksheets and lesson plans, it’s a helpful resource with lots of great ideas to better engage your students.

https://www.eslprintables.com/ : It is a resource with hundreds of thousands of ready-made worksheets, PowerPoint presentations and online exercises.

http://www.esl-galaxy.com/ is a comprehensive, one-stop, completely free ESL resource site. One can download printable flashcards, worksheets, board games, lesson plan packs, and PowerPoint slides.

esolcourses

bbc.co.uk/learningenglish

CBC learning English

Canadian language benchmarks

Immigrate Manitoba

https://www.englishpage.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/

learnenglish.britishcouncil

Teaching English

https://americanenglish.state.gov/four-skills-resources

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/ grammar

https://www.englishgrammar101.com/

grammarhttps://tefltunes.com/category/lessons/

tesol.org

ieltscanadatest

Lesson Plans

sharemylesson

en.islcollective

language.ca

teacherplanet

icmanitoba

Tutela

Speaking and listening

Rachel's English Academy : A source for speaking and pronunciation practices.

British English Council : Home page of listening practices with different levels.

FluentU English : FluentU curates video from all over the web, includes subtitles in various languages, and organizes them for easy study.

English Anyone : An YouTube channel for English speaking and listening.

Home-speech-home.: is a website for kids with speech disability, but you can find good activities for pronouncing different sounds.

Voice of America: Wordmaster : This news and information site has many lessons with different topics and provided scripts which help students to read while they are listening. Also, it has new vocabularies and quiz at the end of each lesson.

Randall's ESL Self-study Guide

COPYRIGHT

Educational Recording Agency

Copyright Licensing Agency

Copyright User.org

Vocabulary activity- Task Based lesson Plan- TESL 0130 Unit 3

In this Vocabulary activity, students have to match each food ingredient with a characteristic. 

-I would pair up the students or they can work in the groups of 3-4 as well depending upon the number of the students.

-Ask them to figure out which food ingredient represents a particular characteristic/feature.

-I would let them use the computers or mobile phones as well if they want to search the information.

- After they figure out the answers, I would ask them to compare the answers with other groups.

- In the end, I would ask them to keep the sheets away. Then, I would read out one characteristic and students will give me the corresponding food ingredient. I would repeat it 2-3 times to make sure that they remember it.

Vocabulary Activity

I have also created a Vocabulary test on quizlet. Vocabulary Test

TESL 0130 Unit 4 Reflection

( Source: https://reflectiveteachingreflectivelearning.com/learner-autonomy/ )

This unit was all about empowering the English language learner and creating an autonomous learning environment in the class. This article New approaches on learner autonomy in language learning gave me more clarity on learner's responsibility, autonomy and motivation and how these are interrelated with each other. I agree that for making the learner's autonomous, different methods need to be used which will make students happy and generate their interest in the class, else they will feel bored and lose their motivation.

As mentioned in the text "The teachers’ vision of themselves in the future is a very important issue for their students because how students engage with new ideas and how they are grown as professionals depend on their attitudes and their teaching methods." , the teacher's motivation and vision is equally important as they will look at the learning process from different perspectives and energize their students. It will help to sustain a positive environment in the class and get students interested in the class at the moment.

Wonder approach is new to me as I have never heard of this concept before. As mentioned in the text that it is an innate desire to learn which motivated the child to learn new things and enjoy it. It is true that the presence of wonder, beauty, sensitivity, and attachment make learning meaningful. I think One way to teach adults to wonder is to encourage them to ask a lot of questions. The teacher can do it with think aloud activities, it will show teacher's curiosity towards the topic and hence, will motivate the students to know more about it.

The other way can be to tie the learning to their life events so that it becomes more related to them and they will try to connect the information they learn with their life and use it. While doing this, they will feel joy and it definitely will raise other questions in their mind and desire to find answers to those questions.

I would definitely implement happy learning approach in my class. I could not agree more that if the student is happy in their lives, they will find pleasure in the study as well. Warm up activities and group work can bring these pleasure in them.

Resources:

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (Rev. 4th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Yagcioglu, O. (2015). New approaches on learner autonomy in language learning. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 199(3), 428-435.

TESL 0130 Unit 3 Reflection

(Source: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/how-to-teach-vocabulary-esl/ )

This unit was about the reading and vocabulary. It is very important that learners have access to appropriate resources and tools so that they can acquire new words and learn to use it. Learning the vocabulary seems to be a simple process as a person just needs to memorize the word but it is actually a complex process. A leaner needs to know the meaning of the word, its usage, pronunciation, spelling and to use it in the sentence correctly and appropriately.

There are many approaches to learn vocabulary. The one approach that I used in my classrooms was to help students practice the same words for a few days so that they memorize it easily. In order to do that, I would try to choose the topics in which the same words were used so that students are coming across the same words again and again. Also, I used to ask the meaning of the words randomly during the lesson, just to create their interest and to bring their attention to those words.

Another thing that plays an important role here is the motivation that how motivated the students are to learn new words. The way I learned vocabulary was to keep a diary in which I used to write down every new word I come across and read those words every day until I know them. I have always encouraged my students to keep a diary.

So, the thing that I learned in this unit is that teachers need to incorporate the vocabulary activities carefully in the lesson plans so that the learners learn the words in context, not just from the meaning. Teachers can encourage them to read and read which I think is the best way to introduce yourself to new words. they can read the books of their interest and if the students do not like reading books, they can read articles of their interest on the internet such as sports.

This unit also shed light on various reading strategies which were divided into three parts: pre-reading, while reading and post reading. We also summarized the Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015), Chapter 17 pp. 410-411 using smart art and posted it on Padlet. Here is the link:  Padlet

Resources:

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (Rev. 4th Ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.