Saturday, September 23, 2017

Recommendation Report

In the course Writing for Teachers, participants had to write a report recommending the continuation or discontinuation of a course book based on its writing curriculum. They had to base their recommendation on theoretical references. Here is what Leandro Camargo wrote about the course book Time Zones, used in our Teens Course.  


Introduction

Like many other EFL schools in Brazil, Casa Thomas Jefferson’s academic staff seeks updated books. In the Teens course, we have Time Zones course books and, to avoid problems with student’s engagement in writing activities, a revision should be done. When asked for feedback, some teachers mentioned that many adaptations were needed in order to make writing assignments more attractive to students. This issue has to be addressed so that students can have a better experience in writing exercises and eventually improve their skills.

Currently, as mentioned by the teachers, a low percentage of the students enjoy the writing activities. This needs to change so teachers can achieve their goals of making writing assignments enjoyable for both. Strategies could be implemented to increase enjoyment of writing activities, since they are just as important as the others.

Writing is an important part of any English course and poor writing can cause academic consequences. Students who don’t have good writing skills or don’t enjoy doing writing usually end the course with lack of writing ability. Consequently, these students will miss out very important opportunities in their academic lives. Changes in the writing program for the Teens course at Casa Thomas Jefferson are needed, and the following report is intended to propose ideas for improvement and continuity of the writing program.


Literature Review

Learning how to write in a second language has always been difficult and challenging for students. Planning, revising, rearranging and deleting, producing multiple drafts are just some of the tools for the writing exercise. “Over the years, different approaches have been introduced in the language classroom, yet it is the process approach that became known in the 1970s that has had the most favorable influence” (Macarthur, Graham and Fitzgerald, in Alves, 2011; 2). This approach considers all writings as a creative act that requires positive feedback with the intervention of the teacher to be well done.

Process writing is a common technique to teach writing that gives emphasis to creativity, and which pays attention to the development of writing practices instead of imitation (Tribble in Alves, 2011; 3). In this process, the teacher moves away from being someone who sets students a writing topic and corrects a finished product without any intervention. Teaching and learning happens during the whole process.

A writer must know how to organize his/her thoughts and messages in an appropriate way. Most students don´t know what they want to write and many ideas are only revealed when they start writing. Revision, changes of words and structure are made until writers are satisfied with the result. Since writing is a process of ‘generating, formulating and revising ideas’ (Zame in Alves, 2008; 6), attention and adequate time have to be provided for revision and re-writing, while teachers help throughout the process.

 Process writing can be divided into three main stages: pre-writing, focusing ideas and evaluating, structuring, and editing. Pre-writing is the stage in which the teacher needs to stimulate student’s creativity through well scaffolded activities, to get them thinking how to approach a writing topic. The flow of ideas is more important than the production of any written work. Among others, a good example of pre-writing activity is the use of brainstorming, considering the complexity of writing and how generating ideas is an essential stage (White and Arndt in Alves, 2008; 7).

After the pre-writing stage, students write the first draft without much attention to the accuracy of their work. White and Arndt, and Hedge (in Alves, 2008; 10) suggest the technique of fast-writing. In this stage, the most important feature is meaning: Is it good? Is there anything missing? Should I add anything else?

Editing is one of the most important stages in the writing process because it´s   where a lot of learning happens. This stage also helps students in future writings, once they have the opportunity to receive feedback. Revising, besides being an important source of learning, is part of the writing process that involves assessing what has already been produced (Hedge in Alves, 2008; 11).

Writing isn't an easy task, and so it is only fair that anybody´s writing is responded to suitability. It is important to give positive feedback to help build student confidence and create good feelings for the next writing.

Since writing is a difficult exercise, students need to write over and over to become good writers. They need the opportunity to practice various types and functions of writing to develop skills, and build competence, confidence and progress toward independence.

All the stages in process writing will encourage students to try. Students will not be judged or exposed because they will have an opportunity to revise and improve before being evaluated. Practice, well planned stages, and well scaffolded pre-writing activities may change students’ lack of enjoyment towards the writing exercise.


 Methodology

For this report, I shared practical knowledge with teachers at Casa to get an idea of what they have been experiencing and doing to increase their student’s enjoyment of writing assignments. I also researched relevant articles on the process writing approach. These articles outline several features to teach better writing lessons in the language classroom.


Causes of low enjoyment of writing lessons

Teachers in general agree that writing is an all too common problem for an English as a Foreign or Second Language school. This can be so due to many causes; from unsupportive schools and teachers to the lack of skill of the students. Also, the absence of interest from the students due to poor pre-writing and not well scaffolded activities are listed as top reasons for the boredom in the writing classes.

Some teachers also agree that if a student is not being successful in his/her writings, then they are less likely to want to hand in the assignments. In short, all of the teachers agree that low quality models of writing and lack of genre awareness are major reasons for students not to do well in writing lessons, especially younger students, once they have special needs.


Effective writing lessons

As the main goal is a better writing program and ideas for increasing student enjoyment, one of the two most frequently mentioned things by teachers are teaching students basic writing patterns and having effective and meaningful pre-writing lessons.

An effective pre-writing class consists of generating ideas and planning. Great tools for that are, for instance, the use of well scaffolded activities including videos, writing samples and mind maps. The writing activities in the Teens course books used at The Casa Thomas Jefferson have just a few of the features suggested. When students are asked to write something, they have no idea how to do it. Activities like these are not only feasible, but also essential for students to become familiar with in order to select the appropriate kind of writing, using them in specific situations, along with the appropriate vocabulary, research, process and purpose.

In addition to improving pre-writing lessons, it is the responsibility of the teachers to motivate students to write and make them aware of the importance of producing good compositions. Creating effective activities that are reviewed and renewed regularly and establishing a writing routine with students are very important stepping stones for improving the Teens course writing program. All in all, as Time Zones is a good book, I recommend its continuation provided that changes are made in the writing activities.  


Conclusion

In conclusion, the findings based on teachers’ experience come to an agreement that the book should still be used for the Teens course due to its other features. Effective writing activities and lessons are very important to help students develop their abilities. Once the book being used at the moment doesn’t present well planned pre-writing exercises, it now becomes the teacher's responsibility to plan and share activities with other teachers.  The following topics are important factors in increasing students’ enjoyment of writing lessons: effective and meaningful writing lessons and the role of teachers as facilitators and motivators, so students can learn and enjoy this activity.


References

Kroll, B. (1990) Second Language Writing: Research insights for the classroom Cambridge University Press.

H. Douglas Brown. (1994) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Paramount Communications Company.


Alves, Reis Ana. Process writing. University of Birmingham: 2008. (Masters degree assignment) Available at: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/cels/essays/languageteaching/AReisAlvesProcessWritingLTM.pdf. Accessed on July 3, 2017.


Sunday, September 17, 2017

Games in ESL classrooms

Hugo Mendonça Lima (Final project for the course Writing for Teachers)

          Having been a P.E teacher for almost five years, I have come to realize something. If you want to make people practice physical activities, without suffering, make it interesting. And what better way to do that than by playing games? Is the attention span of the children in your kids’ swimming class short? Turn the pool into the sea and the kids into mermaids and play make believe. Are your teenagers getting bored too fast in their volleyball practice? Tell them the faster they finish it the more time they will have to play the actual game. Are some of the adults in the gym starting to miss classes? Tell them they will have a bench press competition at the end of the month and the winner gets a month free of tuition.

          For this reason, when I started teaching English as a Second Language, it was no surprise to see that the students from these classes also responded well to games. However, what I was surprised with were the reasons why teachers would use games in an ESL classroom. Most of my peers used this tool as a way to kill time or break the ice. They would hardly ever use it as a means to learn new content. So I challenged them. I proposed we increase the number of times we use games in our classes, but only if we had a specific learning purpose in mind. That way, not only would we have to think outside the box, but also the students would be more engaged during the lessons. The teachers accepted the challenge, and we agreed to bring to class at least one new game every week. Needless to say, we had remarkable results. The students loved the change, and were learning much more every week. And because of that, the teachers started feeling compelled to bring more and more interesting things for classes.

          Thus, I now challenge you, reader. How about changing things up in your classroom? Instead of a PPT explaining how to say sentences in the future, why not play a game with that goal in mind? Maybe have your students work in pairs and play a game of predicting each other’s future (bring a deck of cards or snow globes for fun). One student will be the clairvoyant and will “read” the cards or globes for their classmate, using sentences in the future. It might seem silly, but they will be engaged and will use their creativity trying to impress their peers. Or you can come up with a new game for this topic yourself.

          For that, you will have to understand the definition of game, and its purpose in an ESL classroom. Talak-Kiryk (2010) says that games are fun activities which promote interaction, thinking, learning and problem solving, whereas Deesri (2002) says they are also activities that must have rules, goals, and an element of fun. And according to Chen (2005) and Talak-Kirkyk (2010), games in an ESL classroom provide students with the opportunity for real communication and give them purpose to use the target language.

          If this reason is not enough for you, Chen (2005) mentions in her article that games allow students to explore the language without the fear of failure. She also says that learning should be interesting, fun, and even challenging. After all, we are used to having any kind of information at hand, at any time we want. All we have to do is pick up our phones and look it up. So, having students work hard for something and engage in an activity might be difficult. And games will be helpful when facing this resistance.

          Now, if I was able to convince you to increase the number of games you use in your classes, when planning your lessons remember this: your game should always have a clear learning objective and purpose (Deesri. 2002). A game of Charades might be fun, but it is also pointless if it does not add to the learning process. Furthermore, you should always keep in mind your students’ language level, their age, and personality traits.

          It might seem difficult, at first, to make games a fixed part of your syllabus. However, once your students start participating more and learning more, you will see you are doing something right. The most challenging part will be having to create games for each situation. That is why I will put some links bellow with some websites that might help you. After a while, you will have a database of games you can use, and your classes will be easier to plan, but still effective.

Links for games:


References:

CHEN, I. Using Games to Promote Communicative Skills in Language Learning. 2005. Accessed in: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Chen-Games.html
TALAK-KIRYK, A. Using Games In A Foreign Language Classroom. 2010. Accessed in: http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1488&context=ipp_collection

DEESRI, A. Games in the ESL and EFL Class. 2002. Accessed in: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Deesri-Games.html

Sunday, September 03, 2017

Teaching one-to-one classes

Benjamin Correa  (Final project for the course Writing for Teachers)


Teaching English in a one-to-one situation differs significantly from the traditional classroom modus operandi. There is only one student with the teacher’s undivided attention and no opportunities to have students experiment with peers with a similar English knowledge level. Therefore, a different approach must be sought to better mould the class to this kind of situation. In fact, this is a particularly challenging teaching practice that frequently gets overlooked in TEFL courses (WILBERG, 2014, I).
          Commonly, the one-to one arrangements deal with a student’s needs instead of a pre-arranged, set-hours course. The need for individualization and to meet the students’ needs is important when teaching groups, but when teaching one to one, it becomes more evident. With these parameters in mind, it is important to adapt the class structure so to both favour the end user’s purposes and offer a good foundation to use the language in any given situation. However, to mould the class to these situations, some aspects must be taken into consideration.
          First, the student-teacher dynamic is changed in a way that, although it is not shaped as a peer-to-peer relationship, there is more of a partnership between them than would be felt in a group class. Also, the decision-making process regarding the class is shared differently from a standard class. In a multiple-student situation, the relationship among the students is that of camaraderie that, necessarily, shifts the class from a teacher to a student-centred dynamic. In a one to one class, this is shifted toward a sort of equilibrium between the teacher and the student.
          Moving along the lines of the teacher-student relationship is the classroom management dynamics, or rather, the pressure both teacher and student have upon themselves (British Council). The student might feel pressured, since there are no peers to share the teacher’s attention, nor is there a time for the “spotlight to be off him”. The teacher, on the other hand, might feel pressured to keep the class interesting and realistic regarding the student’s expectations (WILBERG, 2014, p. 7).
          However, those aspects are not necessarily bad. If the teacher can manage to deal with them, they can be turned in their favour. If the student has the teacher’s undivided attention, that also means he or she has larger opportunities for practice and receive feedback. And if there is a development in the relationship into trustworthiness and lightness, the student might be compelled to engage more using the language he or she’s learning. This means more real-life situations and flourishing development.
          Jeremy Harmer (2014, p. 123) states that confidence building is one of the key aspects of language learning. Therefore, one could assume that without the pressure from peers and with the easiness of an acquainted teacher, the student benefits from this kind of class. Developing at the student’s pace and pushing faster or slower is something that helps confidence building and the language-learning process.
          All things considered, a one to one class brings different challenges and distinct rewards for those involved. The teacher being able to manage the pace and the demands of the student helps him or her to develop confidence and fulfill expectations and personal objectives with the new language. Therefore, the one to one class might be a unique opportunity for personal growth for both teacher and student.

References:

British Council Teaching One to One. Available in: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-one-one

Harmer, Jeremy (2014) How to Teach English. Essex: Pearson.


Wilberg, Peter (1994) One to One: A Teacher’s Handbook. London: Language Teaching Publications