Final Reflection Paper on TSL 507: Teaching Practicum 1

Introduction

The Teaching Practicum course aimed to develop our teaching skills by allowing us to teach in different types of classes where there were different levels of learners from different backgrounds. We were given the opportunity to develop ourselves and discover our potentials through creation of materials, lesson plans, class observation, micro teaching, and peer teaching in groups and writing reports to create a Portfolio. All of these helped me to build confidence in myself to be able to teach learners of different levels. Throughout the course, our respected teachers Ms. Hasna Khanom and Mr. Aminul Islam helped with ideas, provided suggestions and effective feedback on each of our teaching sessions which helped me to correct my errors and learn my lacking teaching and preparing materials.

Tasks Accomplished

We have accomplished different tasks that not only involved teaching but also learning from my peers and learning to create and maintain a portfolio which I have never done before. Among the different tasks we have completed, there have been –

Learning from Classes

Apart from my own teaching and peer teachings, there was a lot to learn from the lectures of our course instructors, who, from the very first day provided us handouts and guidelines on preparing lesson plans, materials on teaching, taxonomy list which was definitely the most helpful handout for me throughout the semester and also sample materials on different skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking which helped me to get idea about how to create materials on different skills. From their handouts of lesson plan, I learned to develop a more developed lesson plan than I had done before.

Class Observation

From the class observation, I have learned how to maintain a class and manage all levels of learners. We had made observation of five classes so far which helped me look at the teachers as a model for learning teaching. Practical experiences from class observation are the best anyone can learn about teaching and this course provided me the opportunity to make so many class observations for my own learning. We were briefed before the class observation by our course instructors and we were also briefed by the teachers beforehand who took the class, so there were helpful suggestions that I received for adding to my own teaching.

Micro Teaching

The practice and the graded Micro Teaching sessions was a different experience. I had the opportunity to teaching the BRAC Education Program managers, which I had never done before. They were adult learners and to be able to teach the adult learners was an accomplishment. I had to think and prepare materials different for them, so I gave myself the opportunity to experience on creating different types of experimental teaching materials which I have never done before.

Peer Teaching

Peer teaching was a totally different experience, because for the first time, we had to work in groups with other peers. For this, we had to collaborate on working and preparing teaching materials. Each group members contributed their best to make all the sessions of my Peer Teaching successful. The integration of everyone’s ideas helped me prepare the materials based on different skills and my peers helped me prepare the whole lesson plan through their suggestion and discussion.

Challenges in Group Work

Group work is always a challenge because there are different group members with their different opinions, but when I had to work in groups, I learned how to accept good ideas from my group members and also provide them suggestions on improving their materials. At certain times, when one group member was unavailable when we needed to discuss on our lesson plan and teaching materials, it seemed as though we would not be able to prepare our materials in time. However, we did and very successfully all three of us, in each of our group Peer teaching sessions worked till the very last minute to improve and create wonderful teaching materials which proved to be very successful in implementation.

Learning from Peers’ Teaching

Learning from my Peers’ teaching on their micro teaching and peer teaching lessons was a different experience. By observing their teaching, I have learned how to improve or add certain materials in my own teaching. Sometimes, I felt that my peers did better teaching than me, so I tried to understand what was lacking in my teaching and what was effective in their teaching that I could learn and apply in my teaching next time.

Preparing and Maintaining Portfolio

The hardest part of this course has been so far preparing and maintaining the Portfolio. It is because we had so many materials to submit which included from class observations to one’s own reflection of teaching, submitting the lesson plans and materials, submitting the observation notes and observation record sheets etc. The task of arranging them in order carefully before submission was a hectic task too as I had to check and recheck which submission I have completed writing and which I have not. Also, writing all the observation and reflection papers on my own was a successful task which I think I have accomplished in this course, because I have never submitted so many papers for my previous Teaching Practicum course in Undergraduate years.

How Did I Prepare the Materials?

Preparing the materials based on different skills and different levels of learners was a difficult task to do. For preparing my teaching materials, sometimes I collaborated with my group members who helped me to add certain activities or change certain exercises or add new activities that they thought would be effective. For most of my materials, I tried to create something different, I read articles from the web which were opinions by experienced teachers and I also collected materials which were prepared by experience teachers. Later, I edited, modified and revised these materials and added my own exercises and activities for different levels of learners.

How did the Report Writing Help Me?

All of the reflection report writing and observation report writing helped me develop my writing skills which were much developed by the time I completed this Portfolio. Earlier I had not much experience of report writing, but our course instructors helped us with ideas and tips on writing report. They even provided us with certain bullet points to follow in our writing which I think helped me a lot to improve me writing and complete good reflection and observation reports.

How did the Overall Teaching and Writing Reflected on my Qualities as a Language Teacher?

The overall teaching and writing reflected on my qualities as a Language teacher by helping me to become more proficient not only in teaching but also in writing. I learned how to be able to teach all the skills and improve the lacking in teaching which I had before. I also looked at all the teaching sessions and the teachers as my model for improving my own teaching. The good feedback at the end of each of my teaching session by our course instructors and their tips on writing reports have certainly helped me develop as a language teacher, to understand my abilities and potentials and to improve and make proper use of my knowledge in teaching.

How do I plan to go for Teaching in the Professional Field?

From the very beginning, I had a keen interest to go on Teaching in the Professional Field. For this reason, I have enrolled myself in the Masters in TESOL Program so that I can learn and experience the practical aspects of teaching from different perspectives. After the completion of my degree, I would certainly plan to associate myself in a teaching opportunity where I can not only contribute to learners but also develop and test my own skills to become a good teacher.

Reflection: Use of Technology in Language Teaching/Learning in Bangladesh

It is of no doubt that technology can certainly foster our four skills of language learning by providing us the input in a different way. Even though, we might not be used to the use of technology in language learning/teaching, we can certainly learn how to make use of it to get maximum benefit out of it in the classroom. In this regard, we can say that technology can possibly enhance the language Teaching/Learning in Bangladesh. If more institutions in Bangladesh could provide the facility of computer based classrooms in Bangladesh then learners will be able to learn interactively and make use of their language skills practically in the classrooms.

In learning a second language, I think that computers can offer support to all the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. Use of technology will definitely allow the integration of the four language skills to be used and tested in computer or technology based classrooms. I am briefly going to discuss how the four language skills can support language learning in the classrooms. 

Listening Skills: In learning a second language, listening provides the direct foreign language input, pronunciation improvement, self error correction and the acquisition of language in a natural order. This skill can be exploited to teach other skills of language learning that follows it accordingly. Since, this is a receptive skill, it certainly precedes the productive skills such as speaking and writing. Listening skill can be integrated with the other three skills if there is an optimum amount of anxiety. According to Krashen and Terrell (1983), comprehensible input and learner's comprehension are the two most important things that can facilitate language learning through listening. 

In teaching the listening skills using technology in the classroom, teachers can provide listening audio, song, videos and even sounds that will help learners get direct comprehensible input. In some cases, if an audio or video of a native language speaker is used then learners can also learn about the accents. This can be done after learners have developed a better listening capability so that they can listen and differentiate between American or British or Australian or Indian accent of English in the audios or videos they listen to in the classroom. However, in the beginner stages, learners can be given input of listening to normal Podcasts or simple English songs to grasp the input of the foreign language through using computers in the classroom. 

Reading Skills: Reading skill is also a receptive skill and it provides input to the learners so that they can produce output through their writing or speaking skills based on the input. This language skill offers less anxiety to learners because from introvert to extrovert learners, everyone receive input using the reading skills and can later produce output. Reading provides input of the language psychologically as it provides new vocabulary, structures, spelling, modern and literary use of language etc.

Developing reading skills through technology could certainly bring greater advantages in classroom learning. Instead of asking learners to read from their textbooks, the teacher can show learners digital text through the help of a projector in the classroom. Now days, digital eBooks, newspapers, magazines, periodicals are available online according to the level of learners. There are also online Flash Card software that can be used to learn new information and memorize them in the class, Mind Mapping software that can be used to brainstorm ideas, Dictionaries that can provide definition, pronunciation, synonym and antonyms, common usage of the word etc. They can be used in the classroom, where learners can read directly from the projector screen and work on their exercises. It not only grabs the interest and attention of the learners but also allows learners to proceed at their own pace. 

Writing Skills: Related to the reading skills is the writing skills which can have greater advantages if used with the help of technology in the classroom. Learners traditionally make use of writing in the classroom through their exercise copies or blackboards but if technology can be facilitated, then learners can not only develop their writing skills using the computer, they can also learn and enhance their typing skills. Simple word processing software such as Microsoft Word can provide input for the basic writing output in the classroom where the teacher can ask the learners to write a creative poem, a short story or answer questions on the story which they have just read. In writing, the teacher can even correct learners' use of vocabulary, form, sentence structures which can develop their writing skills.

If learners are of intermediate level, they can use computers to make data collection, research on their essay topic and produce write-ups of their interest. There are several programs on the internet that could help learners check errors in their writing and develop their writing such as the Virtual Writing Tutor, Grammarly.com etc. Even simple grammar exercises, matching, fill in the gaps can be given by the teacher using computer and learners can answer or even check the errors. Other facilitating websites could be the Wikipedia or the Blogs where learners can freely write while the teacher monitors their progress. There are also hub of communication like the Ning, where teachers and learners can write cooperatively, discuss and submit assignments, get feedback etc. In this way, use of technology can certainly make better use of the reading skills for the learners.

Speaking Skills: After the development of the receptive or the comprehension skills, speaking skills can be developed for learning production. Through the use of language, learners can make use of language through authentic or practical communication filled with grammatical mistakes, pronunciation, fragments, fillers etc. The constant use of speaking skills and effective feedback helps learners to modify their outputs. In the classroom environment, teachers can use the CLT or the Direct Method to help learners make use of the target language and hence make use of their speaking skills effectively through group works, pair works, debate, discussion, recite, role play, practice pronunciation and produce dialogues etc.

Use of technology in the classroom can provide learners with the facility of blended learning experience where they will be communicating face-to-face and then go back to using technology. This can reduce the drawbacks for 'mechanical learning' or 'rote learning' of our learners. For example,teacher can provide learners with various internet resources for developing their speaking skills. By recording their own voices through audio recording via Audacity that can be turned into Podcasts, recording videos through webcam, voice threaded discussion can be done through the VoiceThread etc. They can make use of these technological tools and then go back to communicating with peers in class through group presentations, role playing through dialogues, chained story telling and picture description etc. This is how technology can assist making two way use of using speaking skills through computers and then interactive classroom communication among the learners.

Tools I Can Use to Teach Language Courses at my Institution:

As I have mentioned above, there is no limit to using technology in the classroom for language teaching and learning for developing the four skills of reading, listening, writing and speaking. These software and websites can be used as tools if I want to teach language courses at my education institution:

Word Processing Software: Simple word processing software such as the Microsoft Word and the PowerPoint can be used to make use of the writing and presentation skills of the learners.

Virtual Writing Tutor: The Virtual Writing Tutor has enhanced features and focuses more on writing errors and feedback that can be used for learner assessments.This website is a useful place for learning English Grammar and check spelling and grammar to learn about one's own errors. Not only there is scope for checking English Grammar but also feedback and practice activities to improve learners' grammar skills. The correction advice with practice sentences helps to identify and correct errors in writing. So, overall virtual writing tutor is a guide towards writing. 

Grammarly.com: Grammarly.com is more like the error correction software where learners can instantly get feedback on their writing and grammatical errors are detected and showed so that learners can correct them in their writing.

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) contains more than 450 millions words of text in American English that could help learners fins the practical use or words in sentences. This could help them learn use of words in sentences because using the search string they could find different uses of the same word which is not used in ordinary conversations.

TheFreeDictionary.com, Oxforddictionaries.com and Vocabulary.com: Being a similar corpus of vocabularies like the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the Oxforddictionaries.com, TheFreeDictionary.com and the and Vocabulary.com provides instant definition of words, their usage, history and relations with other languages which takes learners to a growing range of world languages. They will help learners to quickly and more efficiently learn new words.  

Audacity or RecordForAll: Both these software provides the opportunity to learn and record one's own voices and use the recording for any use. Learners can easily use these software to record their voices i. e. rite poems, story telling, dialogues between interlocutors, reporting about an incident, a fair they have attended etc. They can even use these recordings later to upload into any Podcasting websites where millions of people from other parts of the world can hear their recorded voices.

Hot Potatoes: Hot Potatoes is a genuinely effective tool that help both teachers and learners to create exercises on audio recordings, cloze tests, matching, quizzes, jumbled sentences exercises that can be used for language learning purposes or even shared with others.

Freemind: Freemind is a basic software where learners can easily brainstorm ideas and write them down to create a mind - mapping on any topic of their interest. It allows learners to edit a hierarchical set of ideas and brainstorming new outlines around a topic which can be saved and used for later purposes such as writing a research o reflection paper.

Mnemosyne: Mnemosyne is an interesting software that can be practically used for efficient learning instantly in the classroom, even learners can use it afterwards. This free flash card software uses a sophisticated algorithm and can optimize the learners' learning process. The flash cards can be scheduled based on their level of difficulty that will come up for a review and the learner learn them everyday and remember them and reschedule them based on the level of difficulty until the learner has completed learned the information on that card.

Freerice.com: Freerice.com is an online vocabulary game that is very interesting and sllow learners to explore and learn new vocabulary and also indirectly donate grains of rice to the charitable cause of the United Nations World Food Programme for the hungry people.

Besides, they can also create profiles with pictures and join groups to communicate with other learners from different corners of the world.

In this way, learners can learn how to make practical use of technology in learning the target language in the classroom environment.

Class Observation on EAP Class of MBA Learners (Teaching Practicum)

We observed the EAP class of MBA learners where there were a total number of 23 students and the class was a 1 hour class that started from 4:35pm. The teacher the class by asking who were feeling happy and students answered the teacher by explaining with reasons. The teacher made a review of the last class’ topic on summary and paraphrase and asked them for reviewing the topic.

Student reviewed summary and paraphrase by discussing on the characteristics - the gist of the text, no examples, no recommendations, no citations and references to be included. Then teacher asked what is citation and students answered that it includes the name of the author, the year of publication and other information. The teacher asked students the reason behind citation, informing that not following the citation will mean that their work is plagiarized. After this, teacher again asked about the characteristics of the summary and paraphrase, this time, he asked them to look at their class work copies. The teacher explained that, “There are overlapping areas in summary and paraphrase.” Hearing this, students spontaneously shared their previous class experience about summary and paraphrase. The teacher then moved to main discussion and informed students that summary comes for report writing and this is the reason why he reviewed on the last class’ discussion. He also informed them that summary helps in academic writing, then the teacher checked the booklet for schedules.

The teacher started discussion on the topic by asking students if they have ever written any report, if so, then what difficulties they have faced in writing the reports. Most students answered that they gathered information before writing a report. The teacher then asked both the working and non – working students if they have written any report and how different was their report writing. He also asked the working students if they have any prescribed report formats in their organization.

Following this, the teacher showed the students Powerpoint slides on report writing. This included the 7 ‘C’ principles of report writing – Completeness, conciseness, consideration, concreteness, clarity, courtesy and correctness. He asked meaning of each of these characteristics and students answered.

Suddenly, the electricity went off and the teacher became unprepared and stopped the discussion. He moved on to taking attendance of the students, waiting for the backup power to start. The electricity came and the teacher started showing students the slides of the different types of reports in short. He discussed about the Routine Operational Reports, Progress Reports, and Problem – solving Reports, Audit Reports and Meeting Minutes etc. The teacher asked the students. “In which organization they write these types of reports and who writes them?” As the students cannot answer, the teacher gave examples, even mentioned that he worked in Qatar Airways where he used to write and submit Routine Operational Reports.

Some students were speaking in Bengali, but the teacher said, “No Bangla in the class” and emphasized using English in class telling that it will improve their fluency. Then he wrote a few points on the board on the format, language and types of report writing. He explained and emphasized that, “Problem – solving reports are written before the problem arises and managers ask employees to write them.” Then teacher wrote on the board another name which was Audit report and asked students about it and few students answered. Next, the teacher asked students about Meeting Minutes, “What do you write? Is there any prescribed format?” Students could not answer so the teacher explained that the Meeting Minutes can be 1 – 3 pages long and they are written in the email format.

After this, the teacher asked, “Are you clear about the types of reports? Do you have any questions?” He also asked the students to help their peers who came late and did not understood the discussion, but there was no cooperation there for the late comers from their peers. So, the teacher had to explain everything again. He reviewed the topic and asked what type of language is used in writing report, the students answered that formal format is used and the teacher added a few examples.

Subsequently, the teacher moved on to group work and formed 5 groups with students based on situations given to them and asked each group to write a report based on their given situation.. He divided the groups by numbers – 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Students formed groups in circles and teacher again instructed each group about their situations which he wrote down on a paper for each group, handouts with instructions, images and bullet points. Each group was given different types of report to write which were discussed in class and the teacher clarified again, “Write situation or questions in the page and start writing the report. Are the instructions clear?” Students started their discussion is groups and the teacher distributed test scripts from the previous class.

The teacher gave a total of 15 minutes for all the groups to write their reports. Meanwhile, he took their attendance and then moved on to each group monitoring their works, providing assistance and suggestion. He carefully checked what they wrote, corrected their errors in writing. One group was writing problem report rather than problem – solving report, so the teacher corrected them, provided them the right situation and examples to correct their report writing format.

As 10 minutes were over the teacher alarmed the students, “After 5 minutes, you will have to present your report.” So, he asked the groups to hurry. As all the groups were done writing, the teacher asked them to first submit their situations or questions and collected the questions or situations from each group. Then he exchanged and distributed the questions or situations between groups and asked each group now to write answers to the questions which they have received from other groups. Finally, teacher told them that they will have to write a full format report now answering all the questions or situations. He explained that the purpose of exchanging the group works was to give them opportunity in writing a different kind of report which they have not written before. As we were leaving from the class observation, the teacher informed us that students will then write these reports in groups again and present it group – wise in front of the class. 

Class Observation on Pre – University Learners (Teaching Practicum)

I observed the class of the Pre – University learners where there were a total of 16 students and the class was a 1 hour 20 minutes class focused on the skills of Speaking and Writing. The teacher started the class with ice – breaking by recapping on the idea of paragraph from the previous class and asked for the submission of assignments from students. Students requested to cancel and submit the assignment later, so teacher agreed and set up a later submission date.

As this discussion was over, the teacher started the discussion by asking students the topic of the current class and informed them that at the end of the class they will have to make a presentation. The teacher then wrote the name of the topic “Quotation” on the whiteboard and started to describe the characteristics of quotation. The teacher explained that quotation is a direct speech by someone important that is written within inverted commas. She further explained that it is an original piece of writing. Then teacher asked the students, “What is quotation? In one sentence, define it.” She asked students to try and answer, so one student gave an example and the teacher clarified that, “A quotation has to be from someone wise.”

Extending on what the student had said about Steve Jobs’ quote, the teacher wrote on the whiteboard a few characteristics of quotation – acceptable, a truth, universal. Then teacher asked the students if proverbs are universally true and as students could not answer, she said the sources of the proverbs are usually unknown. After this, the teacher discussed about Gandhi’s quote – “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

As students participated with the teacher, she then gave them new task about quotation explaining that they will be given a quotation individually and they have to – 1) Mention the source 2) Paraphrase the quote 3) Interpret the quote or explain with reasons (As teacher asked about the meaning of this point, students could not answer, so the teacher explained) 4) Give real life examples in relation to the quotation they have received.

The class had an interactive discussion on quotation after this and there were good allocation of the teacher talking time and student talking time respectively. Their discussion moved from quotation to the issue of the USA vs. Iraq and Israel vs. Palestine war as students responded to quotations with real life examples.

Now, the teacher provided each student a quotation page individually where there was a quotation given for them to work with. She asked students to open the booklet which had the rubric and asked them to follow the rubric in responding to the quotations.

To help the students, the teacher illustrated how they can link real life examples with quotations to write their answers. She also asked if anyone has any confusion regarding the rubric and further explained the rubric. She asked students to avoid plagiarism.

In the first 5 minutes of this individual task, the teacher provided quotation pages to the students from her own hands and students started interpreting the quotation they have received using the 4 stages of interpretation of quotation that the teacher discussed earlier. As instructed by the teacher, the students opened their booklets and took help from it on writing the source of the quotation following the format.

In the last 10 minutes of this task, the teacher asked students to think about expanding their individual quotes and informed them that this is because they will have to make a demo presentation later based on their quotations.

As the students worked, the teacher checked on them individually and provided suggestions as needed. After students were done, the teacher asked a student to come in front of the class and present on his given quotation for 1 minute.

As the student presented, he could not provide proper example, so the teacher helped the student to illustrate his examples. As he was done giving presentation, the teacher thanked him, the peers clapped and the teacher called the next presenter. The next student explained her quotation very briefly with wonderful examples, so the teacher and the peers clapped for appreciation. The next presenter came and he was hesitating in presenting, so the teacher assured him and provided help to explain his quotation and as he was done, the peers clapped.

Finally, the teacher provided marks to these three presenters in collaboration with the other students and concluded the class. As I was leaving from the class observation, the teacher informed me that, the rest of the students will present in the next class and finally, they will work on the quotations in groups following this class’ discussion.

Open Class Observation on Undergraduate Learners (Drama) - Teaching Practicum

We went for an open class observation on one of our Undergraduate English Course of Drama and Poetry in the English Department. Beforehand, we took permission from the course teacher Ms. Rukhsana Rahim Chowdhury to observation her class and explained her purpose of our class observation. She gladly permitted us and gave us the schedule for her next class. So, on Tuesday, 15^th July, we went to the Drama and Poetry class for class observation. As we entered the class, the discussion had already started.

The teacher was discussing about the play by George Bernard Shaw which was “The Arms and the Man”, she was eliciting ideas about the characters from the students. There were a total number of 18 students present in the class. The teacher started by asking them about the play and the main idea of love and war in the play. Then she illustrated on the genre of comedy in relation to the play.

The teacher then used the whiteboard and wrote “Romantic” eliciting the meaning of the word from the students and related it with inner expression and emotion. Then she asked students the meaning of “trivial” and students took part in explaining the meaning of the word to the teacher.

Next, the teacher asked the students about “Romanticism” and they were providing wrong information about the meaning, so the teacher was correcting information about the idea of Romanticism saying, “Romantic in literature is an ideology of one’s created self. It has the tendency to glorify certain ideas, to glorify the dead person for example”. Then she also expressed the idea of “Chivalry for Men” and discussed on the history of the war period. After this, the teacher moved on to the discussion of the main character of the play – Raina and explained that she is a young woman who belongs to an aristocratic family. Describing the atmosphere of the first chapter of the play, the teacher told the students, “What does it say about people who have a library at home? It shows that the family is fond of reading.” Then she moved on to illustrating the main character’s favorite books and writers – Byron, Pushkin and related it with the writers of the Romantic age who focused on writing about the gallant heroes.

Following this discussion, the teacher then asked students about the Romantic notion of War and as students could not reply, she explained, “War bring solutions, any man that goes to war is a hero. Most soldiers encounter ordinary death, those who survive try to hide their stories, because every death is not a heroic solution.” The teacher then explained how the main character Raina had a very glorified notion of war as she was engaged to be married to a soldier whose name was Sergius. 

The teacher then asked students about the opening of the play, the characters and their mindset and students answered one by one. Then she asked students to express the idea of “Altar” and one student volunteered to draw the picture of an altar in the whiteboard. Following this, the teacher described that the altar is a designated space where the religious idol or their photographs is placed. Relating to the idea of the Altar, then teacher then talked about the story and the characters of the play, “Raina has the portrait of her fiancé whom she worships because he went to perform heroic deeds in the war.”

To explain the idea of hero, the teacher further discussed that, “The worshipper thinks that the idol is elevated to a higher level and this person is to be worshipped.” Next, the teacher asked learners to read the lines, “Characters will speak more than they want to speak”. Most of the time the teacher used wonderful dramatic expressions to engage the students’ interest in the discussion. The students also looked eager and attentive and they were less distracting. After students read the certain paragraph, the teacher moved the discussion deeper in the context of the story and the characters.

She asked students about each characters of the play in turns and when any student answered wrong, the teacher corrected their information and explained the idea of that character. The teacher also used hand gestures to illustrate Raina’s character and how she was in doubtful about her fiancé but for practicality agreed to marry him being a good match. The teacher and the students then focused on the conversation of the mother and the daughter’s character. Teacher asked other learners to help understand the ideas of the characters from their peers who understood them well. She again asked about the idea of the “Heroic Soldier” and a few students stood up and discussed on the idea.

There was a supportive and friendly atmosphere in the classroom as the learners were laughing when the teacher said, “The soldier hides in the bedroom of a girl to save his life which is the extreme opposite of what Raina believes in about a heroic soldier, but she still helps the soldier hide in her bedroom”.

The teacher then gives tasks to students for the next class and asks them to read the whole play to discover the character of “Bluntschi”, a mercenary soldier who fights for money that explains the complete opposite of the character of a heroic soldier. Following this, the teacher then compares the characters for both the soldiers – Sergius and Bluntschi for students’ understanding and concludes the first three chapters of the play. After this, the teacher informs the learners that they will have a quiz on the next class based on this discussion.

After this, she divides students in 6 groups with 3 students in each group and gives them the task of reading a particular paragraph from the play for 10 minutes. Assigning them with the task of reading the episode where Bluntschi enters the room, she asks students discuss about it with their group members. The six groups worked for 10 minutes on reading and discussing the certain episode of the play among themselves. Meanwhile, the teacher monitored the groups and provided suggestions when needed. After 10 minutes, the teacher asked if learners have completed reading the episode and when they replied they did. The teacher asked summary of the episode from one group, a presenter from that group made presentation on the episode of the play while the other groups and the teacher listened attentively. The teacher asked the presenter to raise her voice and face the class and helped her with more information during the presentation. After the presenter concluded, everyone clapped for her and the teacher provided feedback on the presentation and the episode from the play.

Finally, the teacher corrected students’ notion of the episode’s texts and notes of which they did not have a clear idea and asked questions. She also gave away some hints about the character contrasts that are to be discussed in the next class. Then she marked attendance and concluded the class. The teacher came to us asking if we have been able to observe the class successfully and whether her class discussion helped on our observation, to which we agreed and thanked her for the opportunity to observe her class.

Video Observation of Teaching at BRAC School (Teaching Practicum)

We observed the video of the primary classes (Class – 5) of the BRAC School of Barabangram, Shahmakhdum, Arban, Rajshahi, a school which is under the BRAC Education Program. There was one teacher and were a total of 29 students who sat in 5 groups in 3 rows in a circular seating arrangement. The class was an English class, the duration of which was 45 minutes. The teacher focused more on picture elicitation, pair work, group work, oral drills, reading, and vocabulary and error correction involving students in different activities. The teacher always asked questions or instructed students in English in the class and the students replied in Bengali, but in case of word meaning, question – answer, oral drill or True/False exercises, the students replied in English.

The classroom environment in the video looked very lovely with language posters of vocabulary and grammatical sentences, vocabulary charts, numerical charts, group names, sentence charts and week charts etc. The teacher called our students by names such as Lima, Jostna, Shakil, Romeo, Nasreen, Tazbiha, Joya etc. and the teacher’s instructions were very clear as the students replied each time she asked a question. The groups of students were rote learners which mean that they needed input to response, without input they cannot respond spontaneously. The main purposes of this English class were focused on the skills of Reading and Vocabulary.

The teacher started the English class by saying, “Now I start our English class”, checking the previous class’ lesson of word meanings from the previous chapter on the English for Today book. Students were divided into different groups and were named in different flowers’ names – Joba, Golap, Shiuli, Rajanigondha etc. The teacher asked the students, “What is our previous lesson?” The students replied her that they were working on word meanings.

Vocabulary:

The teacher started checking the word meanings from the previous lesson. So, she asked word meanings to students such as – heard, throw, believe, imitate, basket, village, villager, ground, summer, lasers, farmer, wearing etc. which were mainly from the previous class. Since, the purpose of the class was reading lesson and learning vocabulary, the teacher asked word meanings in English and students replied in Bengali. She used the Total Physical Response and called students on the blackboard to make sentences with these words and write them on the board.

After they were done with this task, the teacher started the current day’s lesson by asking, “Who can say today’s story name?” The students replied, “The Cap – seller and the Monkeys”, the teacher praised them, “Excellent!” Then the teacher asked them again, “Who can tell the story name?” and called students by name to stand up and answer, Romeo and Tazbiha answered her question. Then the teacher instructed, “Look at the blackboard everybody” and she started to write the name of the lesson and told the name of the story aloud to the students once more, “The Cap – seller and the Monkeys”. Then the teacher asked them, “Do you know who is a Cap – seller?” The students could not answer, so the teacher answered, “A cap – seller, who sells many caps to villagers”.

Picture Elicitation:

Subsequently, the teacher moved on to the next part of the lesson and pointed to the picture on Lesson 23 and asked, “What can you see in the first picture? What is the man doing?” The students answered, “He is sitting under a big tree to take rest.” Then the teacher asked to another student, “What are the monkeys doing? Who can say, Joya?” The student replied to her answer with details.

Pair Work:

Next, the teacher gave students pair work to discuss the pictures with their partners. So, she told the students, “Discuss the picture with your partner”, so the students worked in pairs and discussed the picture. After they were done, the teacher asked, “Nasreen, stand up! What is the title?” As Nasreen replies to her question, the teacher again wrote the name of the lesson herself in the blackboard.

Reading Activity:

The teacher moved on to the Reading activity and instructed the students, “I will read, you will listen and follow the lines with your fingers, understood?” The students replied, “Yes, Maam”. The teacher read out the story of the Cap – seller and the Monkeys from the book aloud and students followed. Once this was done, the teacher then read the story again and this time the students underline the difficult words like worried, passing etc. The teacher noted down these difficult words from the students wrote them on the blackboard and later gave the students Bengali word meaning for these words.

Oral Drill:

The teacher made the students present in Oral Drills by asking the students to read the paragraph with her in English (T – Ss interaction). Later, the teacher and the students read the story together again and this time they read the story in Bengali, “সে তার পাশে টুপির ঝুড়িটি রাখল, সে দেখল তার ঝুড়িতে টুপি নেই।" In this way, the students continued reading the story in Oral Drills following the teacher.

Group Work with Chain Drill:

After students were done reading the story, the teacher asked, “Have you understood the story? Students replied, “Yes, Maam”. So, the teacher asked the students, “Please make 5 groups. Look at the blackboard and see the questions. Your group leader will read the story again and you will follow the lines with your fingers.” Then the teacher asked the students, “Who is your group leader?” The students answered from their groups – “Lima, Jostna, Shakil, and Romeo.” Now, the teacher gave the group a purpose for the next task, “Read questions from the blackboard and answer them by reading in groups.” Mainly, the teacher formed 5 groups with students and asked them to check the Focus questions she wrote on the blackboard. She asked the group leaders to read the story and asked the group members to follow the lines with their group leader.

After the students read the questions, the story and prepared the answers with their group leaders, the teacher asked them the focus questions which she wrote on the blackboard. The three focus questions which the teacher wrote on the blackboard were – Where do the monkey live? Who likes to imitate? Who sat under a big tree? Students answered these three questions from their groups in Chain Drills as they were sitting in 3 rows and in 5 groups, one student asked one question and the next student answered.  After all the groups were done, the teacher praised the students – “Very fine, please give a big hand”. Now teacher told the students, “Copy these three questions in your khata now, write answers and don’t look with each other.”

Error Correction:

After students were done writing the answers to the three Focus questions, the teacher checked each of their scripts and praised them for completing the task. This error correction strategy was very good since students were happy with the way she praised them.

Pair Work, Chain Drill with True/False:

Then the teacher asked the students, “Look at the book, page 76, Session A1. Who can read the instruction A1?” Two students read out the instructions from A1, so the teacher said, “Discuss with your partner about Session A1.” Thus, students worked in pairs with the True/False exercises. Then the whole class practiced the True/False exercises again in Chain Drills – one person asking question, another person answering the question, in this way the Chain Drill continued. Then the teacher checked the True/False exercises with the students again with correct answers “Are you done? Do you agree?” After they were done with the task, the teacher said to the students, “Take your khata and write down the True/False exercises.” Before they started to write, the teacher asked them to go back to making 3 rows again to rearrange the classroom seating before ending the class. As they completed this task, the teacher checked each of their scripts, praised them and informed them that there will be no homework for the next class. 

Conclusion:

These children are mainly rote learners; they need input to respond to the teacher in class. This is why the teachers always assign them with tasks to promote their learning in English Language. As the teacher’s instructions were very clear throughout the class, students had no difficulty in understanding and interacting with the teacher.

The teachers are also only trained for the purpose of the class, they are not fluent in English as most of them have only a secondary or a higher secondary level degree or qualification. This is why, it is hard to develop these teachers sociolinguistically to use English fluently, and they are only trained to use English that is needed solely for the classroom teaching.

Reflection of the Evaluation of Class 9 – 10 English for Today Textbook (Syllabus Design Course)

In this age of globalization, learning English is very important for young learners, so English is a compulsory subject in the schools and colleges as well as in higher studies in Bangladesh. For learning English, students in Bangladesh spend almost 12 years compulsorily in their academic life, so they are supposed to be proficient in the target language. However, in reality, most students cannot even use English satisfactorily as the four basic language skills--reading, writing, listening, and speaking are not practiced, taught and learned adequately in most of the schools in Bangladesh even though the English textbook has been adapted and modified recently.

Earlier, the traditional Grammar Translation Method (GTM) was used in teaching English but due to the huge success of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Method at the secondary level of education in Bangladesh, CLT was adapted in 1995 and first introduced in Classes 9 - 10 in years 2000 - 2001. In Grammar Translation Method, the focus was on the knowledge about the language, its grammar and rules, but the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Method focused more on the communication or the ability to perform. Emphasizing on this idea, the new English for Today textbook was written and introduced for Classes 9 – 10.

The new English for Today text book for Classes 9 – 10 contains the reading materials that are graded according to the linguistic difficulty that was less literary in character because the previous English for today textbook was more literature related and could not meet the demands of the students. The current book of English for Today for classes 9-10 is a decent one containing 14 units in 234 pages including contemporary topics and passages about climate change, world heritage, festivals, renewable energy, media and communications, iconic people etc. They contain exercises on questions, true/false, choosing the correct answer, completing chart, cloze tests, matching, fill in the blanks and writing from imagination etc. The enormous size syllabus and lessons are based on good themes and can provide scopes for learning English communicatively.

Physical Appearance

The cover and back cover of the textbook are attractive and colorful with quotation of Prime Minister about education and the academic year is mentioned. The printing quality and the quality of the paper are good compared to previous editions. The layout and presentation looks neat, the font size is appropriate and the lessons are presented in an organized way according to the Table of contents with proper images, graphs, charts, maps and posters. Overall, the illustrations used in the textbook are interesting, clear and related to the text to exemplify the meaning of the text. For example, in the lesson “Events and Festivals” images of national and internationals events and festivals are given.

Content

The subject matter and units in English for Today textbook are organized topically and the smaller lessons under each unit are presented situationally or functionally. The materials of the textbook are not culturally biased rather cultures are presented in a related way. For example, in the unit “World Heritage” several archaeological constructions from different cultures are presented in lessons throughout the whole unit such as The Shat Gambuj Mosque, Somapura Mahavihara, The Statue of Liberty, Lake Baikal describing heritages from Asia, America and Russia etc.

The topics of the lesson are also related to the needs, age and interests of the learners. For example, in the unit “Renewable Energy”, topics such as electricity production in Bangladesh, hydro – carbon energy resources, solar panels etc. most contemporary topics are introduced.

Even though the functional or communicative syllabus has been designed for Classes 9 - 10 by the NCTB, the examination syllabus or questions designed by the examination board seems to be different from what is needed to test the communicative competence of the learners.

Vocabulary and Grammar

The grammatical items are presented in an increasing order of difficulty such as starting from completing the chart, matching, multiple choice questions, short questions and then writing paragraph etc.  For example, in the lesson “International Mother Language Day”, the new vocabularies related with the topic are presented at an appropriate rate in both the text and exercises. If matching provides new words with meanings, then the next exercises on questions and paragraph writing can be done using those related word meanings from the word meaning list.

Skills Development

The secondary level English for Today for classes 9-10 is actually competency based syllabus which means that students are expected to attain a list of competencies at the end of the secondary level. Even though the textbook aims at making learners attain communicative competence in the target language, it is not fully accomplished because pair or group works cannot be conducted and this prevents participatory learning. For example, in most of the lessons, there are sections for group works and pair discussions which are part of the exercises but they are never done due to scarcity of time and classroom space. Therefore, pair or groups works cannot be done in the classroom using the textbook.

The English for Today textbook follows a proper syllabus where the items are selected, organized and sequenced according to skills for the secondary level Class 9 – 10 learners. An ideal textbook must ensure adequate coverage of syllabus with supplementary materials i.e. audio and video resources. This textbook only serves as the basis for language input and practice, however, only reading and writing are emphasized and listening and speaking remain omitted for the lack of audio materials and teachers’ guide. Reading text are supported by a number of related exercises and writing activities help students develop abilities to write freely such as writing a paragraph, making predictions, report writing etc.

Even though there are detailed instructions on pedagogy and testing in the teachers’ handbook, the objectives cannot be entirely fulfilled for the lack of testing listening and speaking exercises in the textbook. Similarly, teachers are not provided with the teaching tools and guides for testing listening and speaking, so there is an incomplete paradigm shift. For example, in the unit “Are We Aware”, there is a section in listening where students will listen to the teacher/CD that will give them idea about the population of Bangladesh, however, if this topic is not played through CD or teacher does not read out the topic, then there is no way in which students could complete the questions, charts and gap filling activities related to it. This means that omitting the listening topic or text will leave out students from knowing about the topic as no additional text is given about the topic but only exercises in the book.

In most cases, teachers may avoid listening text or speaking topics that includes group and pair discussions which would mean that students will not be using the Communicative Language Teaching method which requires them to speak English in class but rather use the GTM method where the teachers talks more and students only focus on reading the writing omitting listening and speaking. Overall, the four skills are not taught in an integrated way.

Exercises and Activities

The exercises are mainly task – based activities which are organized in a way to promote fluency and accuracy of learners. For example, the unit on “Media and E – Communications” has been arranged in a way so that students explore and enjoy reading the topics which motivates them to know more about the email, social networking sites, digital education program, learning management system (LMS) etc.

There are different types of exercises and activities with examples illustrated in images, charts and tables to clarify ideas about the text. The exercise types are questions; fill in the blanks, multiple choice questions, comparison tables, completing dialogues etc.  Most of the tasks have instructions which are clearly stated in one or two sentences for both the learners and the teacher. Interesting exercises such as use of email and social networking sites may help students to advance in their thinking and communication in the classroom.

Conclusion

The English for Today textbook has a wide range of lesson to be covered, so due to scarcity of time, the teachers have to plan on organizing the lessons of the book taking consideration of the students' interest and level and the duration of the class hours should also be extended for pair and group works, presentation etc.

The less important or non-important lessons may be omitted from the text in order to remove the students' fear of huge syllabus in English and to provide them more interest in reading. The lessons should be designed in such a way that each lesson should contain a variety of activities and skills with maximum student-involvement.

Even though the new English for Today aims at applying the CLT method for achieving the target language competence in English, this goal has not been fulfilled yet due to the lack of sufficient trained teachers, teaching-learning materials, lack of teacher-student interaction, lack of students' motivation, poor performance of the students, students' fear in using English etc. While the government is willing to give teacher training and provide textbooks, they are unwilling to change the examination system which is the biggest challenge in any education reform. So, step by step planning is needed to facilitate change in language teaching and language learning.