Language Teaching Methodologies Observation Report
Learning twelve principles of teaching makes me more curious about education’s world. It is because these principles widen my knowledge about teaching. Talking about these principles is also talking about ideal language teaching. When the principles appear in a language teaching, it means that the teaching process has covered all the students’ need. The principles are:
- Automaticity
- Meaningful Learning
- Anticipation of Reward
- Intrinsic Motivation
- Strategic Investment
- Language Ego
- Self-Confidence
- Risk Taking
- Language-Culture Connection
- Native Language Effect
- Interlanguage
- Communicative Competence
But is it to possible to bring out all of the principles to the classroom activity? I want to see the real condition in the class that I observe for Teaching Assistant Program. I was placed in St.Theresia Senior High School. The classes’ constructions are quite unique since they are only half-walled so both people outside and the students can see each other. The learning activity itself ran very well and strict.
Then, based on my observation and interview with some students, I found some principles that appear in the teaching language activities. The methods for acquiring the data are not only observation but also interview. I did the interview to some students because we were only given one chance to observe the master teacher’s class. After that I combine the data. The first principle appeared was automaticity. I could see it from the student’s opinion. He said that he seldom overanalyzes the English language. He would rather be brave to speak English than thinking too much about its forms. The second principle appeared is intrinsic motivation. Student said that he learns language because he wants to study abroad, so he keeps improving his English skills. No body drives him to learn English except himself. The third is strategic investment. Student stated that he often takes some effort in order to master the language. For example he always does his English tasks well and seriously. He also ever took conversation course outside so that he would be more trained to speak English. He thinks that joining the course will counterbalance the materials given in the school since they are mostly about grammar. The fourth is self-confidence. It can be seen in the class although it wasn’t clear enough. When the teacher asked the students to raise their hands if they could answer the question, no body raised. But when the teacher pointed out randomly, the chosen student did not get ashamed and started to speak confidently. It happened several times in a session. The fifth is risk taking. The student I interviewed said that he often chooses to “gamble” in speaking English than thinks whether the grammar is true or not. He explained that if he never tried to just speak, he would never speak English fluently. The sixth is language-culture connection. He said that he needs to not only learn about the grammar or speaking skill, but he also needs to learn the culture of English native speakers. He assumed that if he understands their culture, it will be easier to have communication with them. The seventh is the native language effect. In the classroom it could be seen as the students use English to speak. They still use their native language manner (Bahasa) to communicate in English. They also found some terms in Bahasa that they do not know the English version of the terms, so they mixed them. The last is interlanguage. The interviewed student told that he would be able to know his weaknesses when he learns English. He is not very good at grammar and writing according to himself.
After I read again my findings, a question passed my mind. Do we need to rise all of the principles appear in the language teaching activities in order to gain maximal result? In my opinion, yes we do. Those principles have already covered all of the teaching skills that I need. So the students will not only learn the outer parts of language learning, but also the whole cores. I certainly hope that with these principles the students will be better than me as the teacher in the future. Of course it is almost impossible to bring them all into real condition, but I believe that they are like ‘my reminder’. For example, when I have taught the students about a material with some teaching techniques, perhaps I’ll feel satisfied. But then when I see the principles, I will directly realize that I am still far from the perfection. So I will always chase it. Moreover, there are still many aspects that I must learn. I will be very curious to meet other new things.
TLL Observation Paper in Teaching Assistant Program
It has been many years that people still debate the effectiveness of new technology in language learning activities. According to Davies & Hewer, the teachers got it very difficult to measure it because it doesn’t have specific measurement. However, ICT, as a kind of new technology really affects the language learning activities. According to Davies & Hewer, the teachers got it very difficult to measure it because it doesn’t have specific measurement. However, ICT, as a kind of new technology really affects the language learning practitioners either teachers or students. For example, with ICT language teachers can find many resources only in few seconds. While the students themselves can imporve their skills by browsing many materials and courses (often for free).
Then, I wanted to observe to the ICT usage in senior high school. I have just done my teaching assistant program. It is such another interesting experience I think, because I got so many new things in this program. I was placed in St.Theresia High School this time, and at glancei thought that this school would be very high-tech. but then the technology usage in this school was not as high as I predicted before. In the class there were text books, whiteboard, chalkboard and LCD provided. However, based on my observation, the language teacher only used whiteboard, chalkboard and books. Every day she prefers only taking examples from books to internet (especially web 2.0 like google, youtube etc). She wants to make students able to do written test, so she gives the students many written test worksheets. From my interview with a student, he said that the teacher inly uses the LCD when they must do the presentation task (Microsoft Powerpoint software). The rest, students do worksheet and worksheet.
If I talk about the effectiveness of the teacher’s less usage of digital technology, I think it’s already effective. It is because the examination form is the written test. So the teacher makes efforts, in order to make students able to do exam well. Even though the learning process is not contextual, the final result is students get success in exam. To be honest, I still get confused if I were in her position. I don’t know the real condition that she faces, but I still don’t want to give up from the worst condition. At least, I have a plan from now. If I were her, I would still encourage them to use the digital media, especially web 2.0 including social network like Facebook or Twitter. Why would I do it? Because with these tools students will be able to learn more contextual, so they will know how to use the language features more quickly. Of course the portion of written test exercise will be more, but I’ll give “extra” tasks to browse and utilize the web 2.0 technology. I don’t mean to burden them with more assignments but I want them to be “out of the box”. I hope I can actualize my plan and create new methods perhaps.
My Reflection About Artwork Presentation
On the last Thursday, my class had a presentation session in Humanistic Studies class. In this session, each group had to present an artwork they had chosen. They would explore more about the multiculturalism core in the artwork. It can be about stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination or conflict. The artwork itself could be a song, poem, movie etc. Then, the performances of each group were very amazing. Each group had its own way to present what they had analyzed from the artwork. For example, a group presented a poem written by a local humanist. They played the video and gave their analysis. While another group showed a song that contained a deep core in multiculturalism.
Then, my group brought a song titled “Wind of Change” that performed by Scorpion. The reason why we chose this song is because this song tells about the conflict among West & East Germany. This conflict at the time had existed for years until in 1991 the Berlin Wall was destroyed. From this song, we tried to explore the conflict from the song and also the concept of conflict itself. After we finished the presentation that only lasted for 5 minutes (that’s the maximal duration :D), we got the feedback from our lecturer. Ms.Nisa, one of our “awesome” lecturers in SSE said that she was very happy having Scorpion’s song in our presentation. It was because she felt that there is no a long generation gap between her and us :D.
Feedback from her was about our exploration. We got less in exposing the song. We too much focused on the theory about conflict and left the song itself. So the song was just like an attribute, whereas the song itself has many values that are worthy to explore. But the presentation itself had been very scientific since we included the basic theories. Then she also said that all groups’ presentations were similar with research. Why? Because we had to find all facts behind the artwork and the theories that became basis of our argument. I like this session very much because I can learn from any kind of media, even from art. Ms.Nisa & other lecturers give me spaces to accommodate my creativity wider and wider. I’m so lucky. 😀
My Reflection about Theories of Teaching
First time I learned about theories of language teaching, I felt like I open a new window. It is because I just knew about some conceptions in teaching languages. They are science-research conceptions, theory-philosophy conceptions, value-based conception & art-craft conceptions. It is said that all of them are old theories for transferring the language knowledge to the students. Then a voice came from my heart surprising me “so why should I learn this? These are old fashion theories, aren’t they?” I got confused, but then another voice answered that question “Yes you should, because it’s not about their out-of-dated but it’s all about the conceptions. You should learn them for your prior knowledge.” Then I started to learn them unhesitatingly.
After I read all of the theories, I was interested in the art –craft conception. This theory requires teachers’ individual skills and personality. I saw that through this theory the learning can be very fun, because teachers can explore their creativity more to develop their teaching so that students will be encouraged more to learn. I would not say that other conceptions are not good, but art-craft gives teachers more chances to use their sense of “art”. What I mean about “art” is the various way of teaching, so teachers here act as artists. Artists never do their work in the same way every time, they always add or modify something so the results will always be fresher than their previous. While the others do not give enough spaces to be as creative as teachers can be. They stick to the research results too much. Of course they are not wrong, but as human students also need personal touch from the teachers.
However, this art-craft theory is not actually such an easy thing to apply. Even though the learning activities can be very fun, but teachers still have some targets to be achieved by the students. If the teachers enjoyed creating fun learning too much, students will learn less effective. Besides, the time allocated often does not suffice. This is another challenge for the teachers. Yet I am not afraid to use this theory, because I want to make a difference. So I will keep creating my teaching methods with my creativity.
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