Reflections of Week 4

This week was really hectic. 
First was to identify the problems of my class.

 I had earlier described about a training program conducted with group second language (L2) students of Engineering and Business Management. The students were enrolled in advanced levels of the university's Engineering and Business Management programs and were applying for placements in private enterprises.

 I  identified problems related to students and the teachers point of view.

Student Related Issues-

1.Lack of Motivation and seriousness

2.Mix ability class

3.Strong Mother Tongue Influence on spoken English

4.Fear of failure

Teacher Related Issues-

The first problem which I faced as a teacher was related to approach of teaching.When we talk about the 'process' of language teaching we will have to consider the aim or desired end result of the 'process'. Richard Allwright aptly remarks, “If communication is THE aim, then it should be THE major element in the process. The question could be put: Are we teaching language (for communication)?

Or

Are we teaching communication (via language)?”- (The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching pp.167)

1.First problem was related to decide on this very issue of ,"Are we teaching language (for communication)?

Or

Are we teaching communication (via language)? "

2.We have only 30 hours for these students.  The second issue was how to select different modules and integrate innovative methods to get the desired result of producing good candidates for corporate selection process.

I have taken the approach of calling these problems as areas of improvement to motivate myself and the students

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This week's topic was focused on how to use technology to enhance reading, writing, and vocabulary skills.

I went through some of the articles in week 4 assignments on our course google site. 

I explored Breaking News English (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/)    which I found a very useful site for my learners. It has more than 1500 free and well designed lessons. I selected U.K. cancels visas of 2,500 students http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1209/120901-student_visas.html.My target students have background information related to this topic.

Then I searched Activities for ESL students http://a4esl.org/ in which I opened English Vocabulary Quizzes - Difficult

I explored Breaking News English (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/)    which I found a very useful site for my learners. It has more than 1500 free and well designed lessons. I selected U.K. cancels visas of 2,500 students http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1209/120901-student_visas.html.My target students have background information related to this topic. The lesson starts with a good warm up activity. It has some interesting before while and after reading activities followed by discussion and homework.

Then I searched Activities for ESL students http://a4esl.org/ in which I opened English Vocabulary Quizzes - Difficult-

Then I discussed about ABCD outcome for these sites.

 All these websites have a lot of material which has to be carefully selected considering the background and needs of the learners.

The last and most demanding activity was to create Sample lesson plan with technology which was the outcome of all our learning in this course.

Regards

Raj