REFLECTION: TEACHER TALK- STUDENT TALK and ERROR CORRECTION

 29-04-2022 and 6-05-2022

 

REFLECTION: TEACHER TALK- STUDENT TALK and ERROR CORRECTION

My observation on teacher talk- student talk was carried out in Grade 7 during three separate periods of 45 minutes each, with 2 teachers in charge of the different periods. The students were 10 in class, and one of the topics was still on food -the teacher called it the “Magic Food”- handling the health benefits of the various types of foods that we eat that are medicinal. The other lesson was a writing task requiring the students to complete a table with new vocabulary to express some ideas.

The first lesson began with revision, and to address the students, T A (Teacher A) may call the names of individual students, groups of students (boys/girls), or talk to the class in general, with a warm and audible voice. The students answered individually, and when the question was addressed without any specific name, anyone could just go ahead and answer, by putting a hand up or not. For example, she asked the class “Do you remember nature medicine?”, expecting the students to give some medicinal plants.  A student talked about Eucalyptus for running nose for example after walking for a long time. Then T addressed an S by name and said “(name), you said you believe it’s possible to help yourself with nature, like aloes vera (S name)” and S answered directly “Yes, my mum…” and he started explaining how his mum used plants. Then T explained that food is like nature’s melody, when you eat bad food you get sick. Later on, she asked the whole class “Do you think about what you eat every day? Do you pay attention to the ingredients” or “Remember when you go to the supermarket, do you read the etiquette?”. She also added “boys, do you check it?” She broke it down for the students to understand better. The students generally answer in English, and when they lack the vocabulary, they switch to Polish, and the T would give the word in English or ask a peer to help. I think it’s important to allow this flexibility to use L1 because the student knows they can take the risk and express their ideas and even do mistakes, and in the course, they will learn because T would build on these mistakes and lack to reinforce the language skills needed.

              T was very attentive to the student’s body language as she talked. That was why she could identify a student who was not really focused on what was going on in class. So, T went closer to her and asked with a softer with a low, and softer voice “are you ok?”. I believe it came as a surprise to the student because she didn’t actually expect such a personal question, her reaction was instant, like to assure T all was ok. She said, “Oh, it’s ok, I’m just thinking about a lot of things, but I’m ok, I’m listening”. It was so heart-warming for me, and I think for the student too, because now she was like boosted to focus more and she participated in the discussions with her peers.

              T introduced a new activity and gave clear instructions. SS were going to watch a video and take down some notes while watching. Before they started, t called a student by name and asked her to remind the class of something she said last time about hamburgers. “I can remember you said when you eat hamburgers, you live 5 minutes shorter, but when you eat fruits, you live forever. I think alluding to the students’ contributions in class as something useful for the lesson is significant because the student feels important and noticed. The project was to draw a poster where they illustrate the way the food and how food affects the brain. T suggested a mind map, a drawing, or anything fit to do the task. Ss sat on the floor in two groups. They were discussing among themselves, in Polish, but to ask questions to T, they spoke in English. One of the groups was actively working and discussing, while the other group was more or less active, only some three ss seemed to talk about the task, and the others were discussing among themselves.  I think this explains why after a while, they had not done much. Up till a week later when I entered the class at the end of their lesson that day, they were still working on it, and not still gone far, because the cart board was scanty. On the other hand, the active group had done something substantial.

As much as I love the idea of learner’s autonomy according to which the students are free to do what when and how I think some deadlines could be given in performing specific tasks so that they get more serious about completing the task and avoid delaying a particular lesson unnecessarily.

               In the second lesson, the process was very much the same, with T B (Teacher B) calling Ss by name or addressing the group and also the class as a whole. For example, at before starting this lesson, T asked an S “(name) can you come and sit at the front? I need you closer today.” S obeyed and went to where T pointed. I noticed she kept calling this particular S by name to answer first before giving the floor to other Ss. In our discussion after the class. T explained that this S was the lazy type, and would generally not really get involved if she doesn’t constantly push him to do so, and would prefer to be by himself. This was clever because, in my opinion, S would not really know why t asked him to do so, and the fact that he was being constantly called would make him feel important and noticed, and make him gain more assurance too. I remember TA also displaced this same S and made him shift his desk in front to be closer to the other students for the same reason that he doesn’t like to participate in class. I think the language barrier could be a contributing factor to this situation because most often when TA and TB ask him questions, he answers correctly. However, he would start with English and end with Polish, or put Polish in between, and when he doesn’t know the English words at all, he would use Polish right away. I could confirm this with some one-on-one brief conversations I had with him before or after a lesson. He would speak slowly in English, with a lot of breaks in the short sentences he usually made. The teachers are therefore doing a great job consciously involving him in class discussions during which he gets the language vocabulary and structures that would gradually build his fluency and develop his other language skills. I also love the fact that this student takes to instructions and doesn’t seem to feel overwhelmed by the error corrections, and he is composed.

              Then T began the lesson by writing down the objectives of the writing task, an essay on giving opinions. T call S “(name), what kind of essay do you know, where you express your opinion?”  S replied “pros and cons essays” T praised S, and after a few more questions to the class, she moved on to explain the stages, which she also put later on the board in point form. Then T gave clear instructions to do the task, to open the student’s book, page 110, and find out the structure of the essay from the example given on that page. Ss had to perform some group reading tasks before writing their essays individually. They had a minimum of 1 sentence and a maximum of 1 paragraph to read according to how they felt, and the interesting and funny part that I discovered was that to indicate that they were done, they said “popcorn”, then the next person would take over from there and read the following sentence or paragraph. I found that engaging, as every student had the opportunity to read, especially, those who needed more practice. The only problem here was that the passage was shorter, such that only some Ss could read before it ended. However, T had a solution to get the rest of the class to also talk. She simply asked them questions concerning the passage, like to identify some linking words to be used in their essays and suggesting synonyms.

              While they were reading, T was helping in the pronunciation of some words like “method” and “additionally”, whereas S was stammering. T also intervened to clarify some doubt, for example, S thought that the 2^nd paragraph expressed the 1^st viewpoint in a task where they had to match paragraphs to headings. T went back to the book and read the instructions aloud to the class and added some explanations for better understanding. Another misunderstanding from another S was about the fact that she believed opinions were stated only at the end of an essay. This time, T made use of the peer learning technique, and asked another S, calling him by his name, to remind the class of which type of essay they give an opinion only at the end. S answered correctly -Pros and cons essays- and right there, they were working on opinion essays.

              Another activity that Ss performed was the listen-think-write which required them to listen to T, think about, and go and write the synonyms to the linking words she said on the table on the board. From Ss’ answers, T noticed they were confused about “to list” and to “add”. So, she paused to throw more light on their differences and gave examples of linking words introducing addition, which helped in the pronunciation and meaning, when a student said “addiction” instead of “addition”, which T slowly repeated with emphasis. T provided more examples of the use of this lexis in sentences, thereby providing meaning in context, which was essential for Ss’ understanding. Moreover, T corrected more mistakes such as spelling, “firstley=firstly“, or structural “in the other hand=on the other hand” and explained the use of the latter when one holds a contrary or different opinion. The last worry came from a student who was doubting if “this means that” was a correct expression, which T confirmed, still with in-context examples of sentences. Each time SS gave the right answers, T would say things like “well done”, “lovely” or “good”. Finally, to announce the end of the exercise, T said “you deserve a 7-minute break”, and all the Ss were naturally happy to have it!

The third lesson was held after the break, and it was the continuation of the second lesson which was to prepare them for this final writing task of the day, the essay proper. On page 111 of their Student’s book, they had to complete the paragraph by filling in the appropriate word. S wanted to know “wazniejsze” in English. T said “more important”. At one time when S gave a sentence to express an opinion, T quickly reacted “I did not hear “in my opinion””, so S added it and repeated the complete sentence. It is important to get the Ss to use the structure immediately, during the lesson, so that they get familiar with it. S also needed the spelling of “encouraged”, the meaning of “preservative”,  and the pronunciation of “convenient”. But here, T referred him to the passage in the book that contained the word and in the word list with definitions, and she just gave a brief definition so that S could move on with his task without interruption. Since there was not enough time to start the opinion essay, T gave a short task to think about the stages in the table, and what to put in the essay for the next lesson. They had to get them from the text and write them down

All in all, I think, these two lessons were successful. Both teachers demonstrated a good mastery of scaffolding that guided Ss in their learning process. They make great use of their voice emission that in my opinion, met all the requirements in terms of comprehensibility, modulation of volume and tone, intelligibility, posture, and frequency, making it engaging and providing conducive teaching and learning atmosphere. The Ss’ questions were clear indications that they were actively listening and paying attention when T was talking, and their mistakes and doubts showed that learning was effectively and efficiently taking place. With their voices, they were able to instruct clearly, correct, encourage, comment, suggest remarks, and praise Ss, who were each time motivated to move forward. I liked the group instructions to “boys” or “girls” that cause Ss to focus because questions are specifically addressed to them, and whether or not we want it, there is always an underlining competition as to who would give the right answer. I could adopt it in my teachings because competition in any real-life milieu calls for perfection, creativity, updates, innovation, and hence, quality. Furthermore, the “popcorn” reading technique involved all the Ss because it is an opportunity to practice and use the skills, and also to let T know what to do next, or at what level Ss are.