Didactics - Journal

What kind of a teacher do I want to be?

A vital part of the success of a teacher's strive for an effective learning process in their class is definitely their personality and qualities. I would say that aside from the subject they were teaching, I can recall the distinct personality traits of my past teachers the best. I remember that when I felt welcome and seen in the class, it was significantly easier to get rid of the stress of being wrong about something, not letting myself give way to the discomfort of speaking before the rest of the class and so on. I connect this welcoming aura of the teacher with one quality and that is empathy. In my future profession of a teacher, I want to help my students remain in a comfortable setting for learning through actively trying to understand them as a person. Of course, the key to a teacher's success isn't just their personality. I want to be aware that my job in the classroom consists of several roles that I need to fulfil in order to achieve a smooth and effective learning process. The role that I hold as the most important to me is to be a resource that is always available for my students. I want to actively try to look for solutions to whatever problems my pupils will come to me with and always be ready to adapt to the situation the class might find themselves in.

Teaching lexis

My main takeaway from our English Didactics lessons is that language teaching needs clear structure. Acquiring knowledge of new words and their usage can pose a great challenge for any student so having a clear idea of the way I will guide my students through this instance of language learning is something I want to focus on. I want to consciously utilize the ESA scheme. Engage, study and activate is a quite simple but undeniably effective way to ensure a full understanding of the new words and phrases. I think this scheme must go hand in hand with a certain level of creativity. Whether it means choosing the right context for the new vocabulary that will interest the students, incorporating different types of tasks and materials with which the students will study the meaning, spelling and usage of the words or coming up with different ways to prompt a conversation between the students that will encourage the active usage of newly learned lexis. Finally, I don't want to overlook the approach I take to error correction. Inappropriate timing of correcting the student's mistakes could hinder their focus or discourage them. When it comes to teaching lexis, I want to practice delayed error correction, especially in the free/r types of tasks. I don't want to interrupt the students' attempts at using the new words and needlessly single them out.

Teaching pronunciation

From the conversations I had with my fellow English students about the styles and approaches of their past English teachers and from the views of experts from my faculty I think that it can be confidently said that pronunciation is a component of language that is frequently overlooked in English classes. Even after only the first year of my studies of English on the Faculty of Education I feel much more confident in my practical and technical knowledge of pronunciation. The main point that I want to transfer to my future profession is that pronunciation has several different building blocks. Students' understanding of how to speak the language properly will never come from simply presenting or drilling the correct pronunciation of each new learned word or phrase. I want to make my students aware of the different phonemes and the technical differences between them, for which I will use the Phonemic chart. To strive for more fluid and coherent speech I will schematically point out the placement of stress in words, intonation and rhythm in sentences and the specifics of connected speech such as the different instances of linking words or weak and strong forms. I want to achieve the practise of all of this through paying attention to it while teaching the other components of language and dedicating it its own fun tasks like role plays, tongue twisters, listening to music, etc. 

Teaching Grammar

In my own experience, learning new grammar has at some point been a bit of a struggle for almost all types of students. Even the teachers often opened dedicated grammar lessons with something along the lines of: "I know this might be a bit hard and boring, but let's get through it!". Inevitably, students have to sufficiently absorb new rules and structures in order to progress to new levels of their English skills. There is a lot of room for adopting bad speaking and writing habits in this instance, so I want to clearly know how I take my approach towards teaching new grammar topics. Not much can be imagined without context, so the starting point should be a well selected written story, a song, a conversation, etc. with which the students will work and identify and reproduce the new target structure. Then it is up to the teacher to establish a clear understanding of the meaning behind it and reasons for using it. What follows is identifying the form and function of the target structure. Then comes the typically more active and engaging practise, which has to be controlled at first and depending on how the students are sure in themselves with the newly learned target structure, they can move to free practise that gets them speaking in groups with not much support.

Error correction

Correcting students' mistakes is an integral part of every lesson. I think that in my future profession this may be the element of my teaching style that will vary the most. Firstly, there are different situations and tasks that call for different approaches to error correction. I can choose whether to correct mistakes on the spot, right as they happen, or remember them and bring them to the students' attention later. I will opt for the first option when I am aiming for accuracy, for example a role play that focuses on a newly learned grammatical issue. The second option will be better when I need a level of creativity and initiative from the students, for instance during a discussion that sets context for other tasks. I can also choose to point out a mistake, explain the issue and provide the correct answer all by myself. Although what I will prefer is that the students realize their mistake themselves and with my or their peers' help find the correct option. I would say this is the area of error correction that calls for the biggest amount of my creative input. 

Teaching materials

I know from my past experience as a learner and from my English Didactics class that a course book will be the primary teaching material that I will use. However the course can't be used on its own. Even though it helps with organizing the teaching process in various ways such as what topics to prioritize or supplying tasks and activities, its effect and value for the teacher's current teaching intentions always should be evaluated, same as any other teaching materials. There are several qualities to be distinguished. It should be meaningful – clearly showing the meaning of the target language, memorable – so it is also valuable for future reference, communicative – prompting real conversations, generative – presenting more chances for practise, challenging – demanding thought, not just mechanical repetition, achievable – working with the skills that are in the within the students' level, monitorable – allowing for the students' progress to be measured. Based on these qualities, the coursebook should be supplemented with additional teaching materials. I think that this is once again an area where it is very important to get creative. There are great online resources to be consulted during teaching but I would say that it is important to remember not to overuse digital materials. There are recent studies which argue that digital materials can have negative impact on especially younger students' learning abilities and I personally think that we should strive for reducing children's screen time.