Interactive language Teaching II:

Author: Glemaud, Marie Michelle
Creation date: Wednesday, February 8, 2006 8:42:19 PM EST

List the advantages of Group Work and the excuses for avoiding Group Work
1. Group generates interaction language. The teacher talk in not dominant as it was in the traditional era as a result the students gain a great quality of interaction language.

2. Group work offers an embracing affective climate. The students get to be open with their peers and become vocal participant in the process. Through this they gain a sense of security and become motivated.

3. Group work promotes learner responsibility and autonomy. Everyone in a group has a task and should need to take responsibility to respond or demonstrate what they accomplish

4. Group work is a step toward individualizing instructions. Small group can encourage students to use their talent to accomplish separate goal.

Excuses for avoiding group work

1. The teacher is not longer in control of the class.

2. Students will use native Language.

3. Students’ errors will be reinforced in small group

4. Teacher cannot monitor all groups at once.

5. Some learners prefer to work alone.

Teachers are afraid that during group work they will be depriving of their role s the person in charge because most of the time the students work and use their own strategies to accomplish the task put upon them. Additional to this student have the tendencies to use their native language and at their time the teacher really can not pinpoint exactly who one in the group is using their language and something they just whisper between themselves so that the teacher could not heat them. Another issue as to do with correction student mistakes while they work in group. It is difficult for the teacher to provide special attention to correct their language errors. Most importantly teacher really can not monitor all the groups at once. A major problem that can arise in group work is that some student will prefer to work independently.

When implementing Group Work in Your Classroom describe the techniques for:

Implementing Group Work in your Classroom

In this section we found that some works are not suitable for group work. Teaches must take in account the type of activities they plan in doing either group work or pair group. In the book pair work activities need to be succinct, linguistically simple and quite controlled in terms of the structure of the task. On the hand activities that can be done in a group can include the following:

1. Games
2. Role- playing and simulations: Simulations usually involve a large group and it is more complex.
3. Drama is a more formalized form o role-playing or simulation with a pre-plan story line and script.
4. Projects:
5. Interview
6. Barnstorming: a technique whose purpose is to initiate some sort of thinking process.
7. Information gap: Use most often in adult class. It a task that involves conveying or requesting information.
8. Jigsaw: are special forms of information gap in which each member of a group is given some specific information and the goal is to pool all information to achieve some objective.
9. Problem solving and decision making in which the group is to focus on finding a solution of a specified problem.
10. Opinion Exchange:

>Planning group work
1. Introduce the techniques which can be a brief explanation of the master in question.
2. Justify the use of small group for the technique. If student have some doubts about the significant of the upcoming task, then tell them explicitly why the small group in important for accomplishing the task.
3. Model the techniques. In simple techniques, especially those that your students have done before, modeling may not be necessary. Bur for new and potentially complex task, it never hurts to be too explicit in making sure students know what they are supposed to do.
4. Give explicit detailed instructions. Restate the purpose of assignment when students understand what to do, the rule to follow, the time frame, assignment of roles
5. Divide the class into groups. Point out what each group must do.
6. Check for clarification. Check for students ’understanding before they get into their group.
7. Set the task in motion. Some facilitation may be necessary at this stage to ensure smooth logistics.

>Monitoring. The task In this stage you will be like a facilitator and resource. It is important to let students know that you are available to guide them in accomplish their task by giving them your suggestion but they final result should be done on their own. Walk around the room to supervise how each group is doing.

>Debriefing. The briefing, or “processing,” as some would refer to it, has two layers:
1. Reporting on task objectives. If groups were assigned a reporter to present something to the class each group should bring their findings, you may entertain some brief discussion, but be sure not to let that discussion steal time from other groups. The whole class process gives each other a chance to perceive differences and similarities in their work.
2. Establishing affective support. Encourage whole class feedback.

Classroom Management

Author: Glemaud, Marie Michelle Creation date: Wednesday, February 8, 2006 9:19:21 PM EST

Describe the four categories of the classroom itself.
1. Sight, Sound, and Comfort. The way you present the classroom and yourself can have great effect on student because paid attention to every little detail they see, and hear.
2. Seating arrangement. It is better for you to create an environment where interaction can occur in the classroom. If the room has tables with two to four students at each, try to come up with configuration that make interaction among students most feasible.
3. Chalkboard use. The board should be neat because it gives students added visual input along with auditory. It allows you to illustrate with words a picture and graphs and charts. 4. Equipment. If you are using an electrical equipment ( say an overhead projector, or a video player)
· The room has outlets,
· The equipment fits comfortably in the room, · Everyone can see (and/or hear) the visual/auditory stimulus, · You leave enough time before and after class to get the equipment and return it to its proper place, · The machine actually work, · You know how to operate It · There is an extra light bulb or battery or whatever else you’ll need if a routine replacement is in order.

How does your voice and body language affect your classroom management?Effective communication is an important skill for the successful teacher. Verbal and nonverbal communication can often make a difference between success or failure with students. It is not only what you say in the classroom that is important, but it's how you say it that can make the difference to students. Nonverbal messages are an essential component of communication in the teaching process. They are very powerful. In language classes, especially, where students may not have all the skill thy need to decipher verbal language. Their attention is drawn to nonverbal communication.

Teachers should be aware of nonverbal behavior in the classroom for three major reasons:

• An awareness of nonverbal behavior will allow you to become better receivers of students' messages.
  
• You will become a better sender of signals that reinforce learning.
  
• This mode of communication increases the degree of the perceived psychological closeness between teacher and student.
  

You need to articulate clearly and project your voice so that the students can understand you and hear you. If they can not hear the class can turn into a coast and you will not know what to do.

How would you handle Midstream Lesson Changes?The key to unexpected event in the classroom is to poise. You will keep the respect of your students and your own self-confidence by staying calm, assessing the situation quickly, making a midstream change in your plan, and allowing the lesson to move on.

Describe management concerns dealing with:

>Teaching Large Classes It is mentioned that language classrooms should have no more than a dozen people or so. They should be large enough to provide diversity and student interaction and small enough to give students plenty of opportunity to participate and to get individual attention. However sometimes this issue can get another figure where you up end with a large group in a language classrooms. This can really present some problems for you as the teacher.

· Proficiency and ability vary widely across students.
· Individual teacher-students attention is minimized. · Students opportunities to speak are lessened · Teacher’s feedback on student’s written work is limited.

>Teaching multiple proficiency levels in the same class

There is often a wide range of proficiency levels among students in the same class, especially in large classes, but even relatively small class can be composed of students who in your estimation should not all be placed at the same level. When face with a situation like this some students can left out if you are not a strong and comprehensive teacher to use your good judgment to provide equal instructions and treat to all individual the same regardless his or her level. For most students, competencies will vary among the four skills, within, each skill, and by context. You must identify the specific skill and abilities of each student in your class so that you can tailor you techniques to individualized needs.

>Compromising with the Institution Another adverse circumstance is one that most teachers have to deal with at some time in their careers: teaching under institutional conditions that do not meet their ideal standards or philosophy of education. Sometimes such circumstance focus on an individual in charge, a director or principal.

· Classes that are far too large to allow for the kind of result that the administration expects

· physical conditions in the classroom that are onerous,

· administratively imposed constrains on what you have to teach in you course( the curriculum, possibly in great detail)

· administratively imposed constraints on how you should teacher( a specific methodology that you disagree with is required),

· Courses that satisfy an institutional foreign language requirement, in which student imply want a passing grade,

· Courses that are test focused rather than language-focused

>Discipline. Effective discipline requires three essential components:
1) a positive, supportive, loving relationship between the parent(s) and child, 2) use of positive reinforcement strategies to increase desired behaviors, and 3) removing reinforcement or applying punishment to reduce or eliminate undesired behaviors. All components must be functioning well for discipline to be successful. Discipline seems to be what you use (or crave), when student behavior is interfering with the operations in the classroom. In a sense, negative student behavior of this type gives us a clear indication that our classroom management is proving inadequate (in at least this one case). Thus we see classroom management as the positive framework we lay down in the effort to promote student behavior that is conducive to (or even furthers) the learning goals of the class. Our concerns with discipline as such mean that we are in search of an effective mending process.

Those were some pointers offer by the author on discipline

• Learn to be comfortable with your position of authority.
  
• Gain the respect of your students by treating them all equal fairness.
  
• State clearly and explicitly to your students what your expectations are regarding their behavior in class (speaking, turning-taking, respect for others, group work, individual work etc...), attendance (tardiness and absence policy) and any extra-class (“homework”) obligations.
  
• Be firm but warm in dealing with variances to these expectations.
  
• If a reminder, reprimand, or other from of verbal disciplinary action is warranted, do your best to preserve the dignity of the student (in spite of the fact that you could be frustrated enough to want to humiliate the student in front of classmates!).
  
• Try, initially, to resolve disciplinary matters outside of class time (ask to see a student after class and quietly bur firmly make your observation and let the student respond) so that valuable class minute aren’t spent focusing on one student.
  
• In resolving disciplinary problems, try to find the sources of the problem rather than treating symptom.

>Cheating is special disciplinary matter that warrants careful treatment. The first step to solving a perceived problem of cheating is to ascertain a student’s own perception: Did he or she honestly believe they were doing something wrong? Cheating can be attribute to the fact of being pressured to “excel.” As teachers provide assistant where needed and make your students understand that you are available to help and the test is a way to provide feedback in how they are doing.

>Teacher’s Roles and styles

1. Roles: For growing comfortable and confident in playing multiple roles, you need to know yourself, your limitations, your strength, and your like and dislike and then accept the fact that you are called upon to be many things to many different people. You need to become consisten in dealing with your students.

2. Teaching Styles:Your teaching style is another affective consideration in the development of your professional expertise. As you grow more comfortable with your teaching roles in the classroom, make sure your teaching style of teaching is also consistent with the rest of you and with the way you feel you can be most genuine in the classroom; then learn how to capitalize on the strengths of your teaching style.

3. Cultural Expectations: One major consideration, in the effectiveness of playing roles and developing styles is the culture in which you are teaching and the culture of your students.

What is necessary to create a Positive Classroom Climate? The roles the teachers play and the style they develop will merge to give them some tools for creating a classroom that is positive, stimulating, and energizing

1. Establish rapport. Rapport is the relationship or connection you establish with your students, a relationship built on trust and respect that leads to students’ feeling capable, component, and creative.

2. Balance praise and criticism. Genuine praise, appropriately, delivered, enables students to welcome criticism and to put it to use.

Effective praise include:

· Show genuine pleasure and concern

· Show verbal and nonverbal variety

· Specifies the particulars of an accomplishment, so students know exactly what was performed well.

· Is offered in recognition of noteworthy effort on difficulty tasks.

· Attributes success to effort, implying that similar success can be expected in the future

· Fosters intrinsic motivation to continue to pursue goals

· Is delivered without disrupting the communicative flow of ongoing interaction.

3. Generate Energy. Energy is what you react to when you walk out of a class period and say to yourself,”Wow! That was a great class! Energy is the electricity of many minds caught up in a circuit of thinking and talking and writing. It is an aura of creativity sparked by the interaction of students. Energy drives student toward higher attainment.