Teaching strengths

Language analysis and CCQs: After six teaching practices, my language analysis and
CCQ´s have improved significantly and have become one of the pillars in my class. It has
allowed me to check meaning accurately and students are able to relate personally when
producing language and checking for feedback.

Establishing good rapport with learners: I have always been a very open and funny teacher.
It has helped me to establish a more casual interaction between students and myself, and by
doing this students loosen up a bit and sometimes even start to communicate better. Once
the communication style is positively established the outcome of a learning session is
usually good.

Lesson stages planning: For all of my planning I have followed the lesson framework in order
to establish the correct sequence of stages for the main aim. I have always consulted
beforehand with my tutor if a change in staging had to be done, and corrected it if necessary.
I have been able to improve my micro staging, my main and sub aims are clearly
established, and my procedure sheet follows a logical sequence.

My level of English: Since I studied in the US I have been able to perfect my english. My
level of language has allowed me to have good pronunciation, use grammar properly, a good
vocabulary bank and I'm also familiar with common expressions in American language.

Areas for improvement

Areas for improvement How to make progress

If technology is failing I must remain calm Use a platform that does not require
and try to fix it. internet such as Microsoft word.

I have been told on a few occasions to not By limiting myself to just praise or help them
echo or repeat what students say when clarify what they answer.
they report black in open class.

Instructions need to be clearer for Ss to Review the procedure sheet a few times
understand, show worksheets and model before class so I don't leave anything out
the activity. when instructing a task.

Checking for second listening: I have done two listening lessons so far. The first one was a
short clip with straight answers, and the students didn't really need a second listening but still
I played it for a second time. In my second lesson, the listening was much more complex
and longer. Some students got their answers wrong even though I played the listening clip
twice. My tutor suggested that a good way to check if I need to play the listening again is by
asking a strong student how many questions he was able to answer. Basically if a strong
student wasn't able to answer most of them, you know another listening is necessary.
Reduce echoing students: From the beginning of the course I have noticed that I tend to
echo what my students answer in open class feedback. Most of the time I'm not even making
a pronunciation correction, I'm just repeating exactly what they are saying. It's no longer a
quality input for the student, but rather myself processing their answer for my own record. In
the future, I need to limit myself to praise their answer with a basic approval word, or help
them clarify their answer if needed. My tutor explained that by echoing students, teacher talk
increases, and it takes away posible student interaction.

Giving clear instructions in the correct order: In my procedure sheet, my instructions are very
clear and in the correct order, but when it comes to giving the instructions in class I mess up
and don’t follow the correct order. I sometimes even skip altogether what I have planned for
instructions. My tutors have given me feedback on this because sometimes Ss might be a bit
lost on what they have to do. So I have come up with a plan to allow me to focus on that
stage and what I have to say. I will be using post-its to help myself remember exactly the
correct order of steps that I have planned for giving instructions.

Observations

I saw Samantha teach a reading lesson based on a text from the student book about a hotel
in Chile. The productive follow up activity consisted of students having to create a
promotional advert for that hotel and presenting it to the class. The sub skill was
personalized the text and practise speaking for fluency. It also practised reading for a deeper
comprehension since they had to create an advert from the reading itself. It was a different
approach for a follow up activity, the students did a great job relating to the reading and the
tutor commented on how well it connected with the main aim of the lesson. I would like to
incorporate this type of activity because it can practise several sub skills at a time, and it
makes the aim of the lesson a bit more complete.

I saw Victor teach pronunciation very efficiently by just focusing on the hardest target
language, which was phrases with go. He modelled the word, drill chorally and individually,
and then explained the different pronunciation features such as stress and linking sound in
this case. The students were able to practise speaking for fluency by learning the correct
pronunciation and clarifying new language as well. I would like to incorporate this teaching
approach because it focuses on the pronunciation that needs clarifying the most.

I saw a tutor give a class about functional language and the correct approach to teach it. At
the beginning she was explaining the literal vs intended meaning of the language. She used
a transcript from a famous movie scene which I was able to identify quickly, and it helped me
understand better what she was explaining because I was able to recall that scene in my
mind and link everything together. In this activity, students were practising reading for a
deeper comprehension between literal and intended meaning of language. I would like to
use material that is easily relatable for the students, because it really helps to personalise
the target language.

Further development after the course.

I need to continue reviewing my own language in the area of grammar. I have noticed
throughout the course that I need to freshen up basic concepts and rules related to verb
tenses, auxiliary and phrasal verbs, if and wish, etc. I would be working with books such as
English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy and Teaching English Grammar by Jim
Scrivener. I have found these books very useful throughout the course.

I would like to evaluate my own teaching by recording lessons that I teach to a group of
learners. I think it's important to practise and see ourselves as many times as we can in
order to identify the areas where we struggle.

I would also like to arrange extra observation sessions with my tutors every now and then, or
have more recorded sessions available on the platform. I really enjoy seeing these
observations because they are teaching more up to date lesson content, they are using all
kinds of online platforms and presentation programs which are all very helpful in this new era
of virtual teaching.