A little bit wiser..?

I was very excited to be able to watch myself after using my camera to video my class last Sunday. I excitedly came home right after the class and started uploading the video to YouTube. After two agonizing hours, I discovered that I had partially failed again. Oh boy... It turned out that I did not have enough memory and was able to record 21 minutes and 52 seconds of my one hour class. Moreover, the recording was slanted. I swear I will get it right this week!! Fortunately, I was able to hear myself and students clearly and was able to gather more ideas about where I have issues to take a closer look and come with strategies to improve…    

After my first class, I was determined to allow more time for students to reply. Based on the readings and discussions we have had in class, I made sure to wait at least three seconds (I counted in my head literally) and practiced extended wait-time. I was very pleased to find out that in fact there were more students participating in classroom discourse including one of the quiet students. In the first class, I had received mostly one or two-word responses. So, I was prepared to fight! I actively tried to provoke them to talk more. It worked with some students (not yet with all) and they were able to produce longer sentences. Their sentences, however, were not any more complex or higher level than before. I need to keep provoking them. I need to find ways to do so more skillfully. I need to help my students create more with L2 to help grow their level of English proficiency.

They did have homework as well. It was to describe their favorite dish as thoroughly as possible. I had planned to have each student read out loud and then engage in a dialogue on this topic. However, after we had done a simple group activity, students asked me if they could do this activity in groups instead. I was glad to allow students to self-select. So, we changed the rules of the activity a bit so that it could be done in groups. Now that I know they enjoy group activities, I plan to incorporate more of it...

In another part of the class, we went over asking for and giving directions using the maps I had brought to class. They role-played in pairs and carried out both tasks. When I first suggested this activity, it did not take me long to realize that they did not know the meaning of “role-play”. I tried to explain to them by making use of morphological processing. I wrote the word “role-play” on the whiteboard and pointed out that it was made up off “role” and “play”. Then I heard plenty of “ahhhh”s. They had gotten it!! I will try to use this method as much as possible and hopefully, in time, they will be able to do this to an extent independently.

Furthermore, I really made an effort to nominate students more equally to answer my questions after I had noticed that I had failed to do so during my first class. I also tried to pick different students to serve as leaders for different group activities. I need to make sure to continue to conduct my classes in this manner.

Although I did not do this during my first class, last Sunday I ended up using L1 in two instances. Though one was justified as I was comparing and contrasting certain restaurant manners in Korea and overseas, the other was absolutely not. The word “yagguk” just slipped right out of my mouth. Immediately I caught myself and uttered “pharmacy”, which is the equivalent word in English. I think part of the problem is that when I am speaking (or rather trying to) in Korean with Korean colleagues, who can understand some English, I am doing this a lot: mixing English words with Korean as I am not quite yet able to hold a conversation from beginning to end in Korean except for short, simple sentences to express physical needs such as “I am hungry”, “I am tired”, etc. I must keep reminding myself the golden rule on L1 usage: “as little as necessary, as much as necessary”.

This brings me to the last point I wish to highlight. I experimented using the Responsive-Collaborative Discourse, which we talked about last Saturday. I asked my students to discuss among themselves and come up with one topic they have difficulty with. I selected one student, who is supposed to get back to me and inform me what that topic is so that I incorporate into next class. I was supposed to hear back by today. It is now 10:12PM and I have not yet heard back. Shall I be starting to freak out..?

Based on my self-observations, I am planning to study turn-taking, corrective feedback and Teacher & Students’ L1 use for my Module 1 assignment. I have to admit that the third category I have listed is the one I am most excited to find out more about.