Teaching learning and learning teaching.

A reflection paper cites reaction, feelings and analysis of an experience in a more personal way than in a formal research or an analytical essay (Mertens, 2010). I can say that I have learnt by teaching as a tenderfoot in the ESL field. As a student teacher I had several assumptions prior to the online teaching practicum and some were proved to be accurate while some were not. However, I would say that this month of experience and innovation has given a huge exposure along with valuable practice to become a successful ESL practitioner.

While designing my lessons, developing the activities and materials, my sole intention was to create authentic “classroom activities which are parallel to the real world” (Richards, 2006). I aimed at mastering knowledge on content, discovering, self-directing, engagement, teamwork and critical thinking of the learners.

The lessons were planned under four themes in relation with the grade 08 text book, assigning one theme for a week. I intended to apply my own insights during teaching by firstly analyzing the students’ needs. The learners admitted that the most wanted skill to be developed was the speaking skill. In order to achieve this goal, I built most of my teaching premises to achieve communication aspects of language. As Widdowson (1977), states that humans are not just walking robots, my aim was to assist students comprehend and learn to apply the learnt language in productive speaking. Whenever I start a new lesson, I built the rapport with students by making them comfortable to speak up. For this purpose, I utilized pictures and short video-clips in order to prompt the speaking of the learners. According to Iqbal (2015), “Visual aids are those devices that are used in classrooms to encourage students’ learning process and to make it easier and interesting”. Students always found these types of activities interesting and engaging.

According to Noddings (2001), language teachers are humanistic in their classroom management approaches. In this process it is very important to demonstrate approachability to the learners by impressing the students in a friendly manner. The relaxed and friendly atmosphere build a tress-free learning environment so that the learners engage in ESL learning with no haste. Burden (1997) explains the influence of the humanistic approaches in English language learning and methodology. Approachability is another fundamental in applying humanistic approach. I always act empathetic when understanding learners, allowing them to see myself as an ordinary human being just like them. I experienced that this non-dominant aspect immensely helped in teaching English, especially in speaking activities.

Arnold (1999) states that anxiety is quite possibly the affective factor pervasively obstructing the learning process. I strived hard to eradicate the negative feelings of uneasiness, self-doubt, frustration and tension during the ESL lesson. I tried to build the impression that the learners can learn English in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Senior (2006), states that teachers should be friendly, supportive and should ensure that the other students do not tease the error committed learner. Harmer (2007), calls this as ‘medal and mission’ because as a facilitator, a teacher should always non-threatening and friendly atmosphere when it comes to error correction. I usually discussed the long answers and the students were asked to send their answers through whatsapp media for correction. I could prevent any unfavorable result by doing so when dealing with error correction.

I’m committed to use peer correction in the ESL classroom as it allows the learners to become better editors and self-evaluators while developing their self-confidence as independent learners. Pair works and small group works were used abundantly in order to build the interaction with MKOs. I was mindful to form groups or pairs according to their nature of being introvert or extrovert. According to Dornyei and Ushioda (2013), “members in various small groups such as learner groups, project teams, work parties, etc., has a powerful impact on the group members’ motivation and behavior”. The zone of proximal development assists the learners to overcome the challenges in collaboration with more capable peers. Students happily engaged in pair and group activities than the individual activities that I have assigned them.

Dornyei (2001), states how technology can be used in ESL classroom because the learners are motivated when they see animated pictures, practice activities with challenges, curiosity and context. This statement was proved with evidence as all the students loved watching the video-clips on “Panchathanthra stories”. I included informative video clips about various destinations, birds and nature so that I could see the learners engaged in their leaning more enthusiastically. Some learners asked me to share the clips to watch later for better understanding. In addition, all the listening materials were recorded in my own voice to avoid any inconveniences that might happen to the learners. Although there were numerous positive aspects, I experienced some ineffective features of my lessons too. My objective to provide with clear and concise instructions to maintain smooth transition was not fully achieved as two students often requested for clarification of instructions. Through this, I practiced myself to provide with more simple and consistent instructions. In addition, two of the learners confessed that the first lesson was too easy for them, as there were students from different language proficiency levels and gaps in knowledge and skills.

Student feedback was heart-touching and most importantly, it realized me the impact of a good teacher that cause success in the learners’ lives. I believe that I was capable of attracting their attention throughout the lesson along with the diversity, motivating them towards learning English while building productive teacher-learner relationship that results in better ESL acquisition.

My professional identity as a teacher is raised with understanding my strengths and weaknesses in teaching English. This valuable experience equipped myself as a novice teacher to handle various challenges in the ESL classroom while acting as facilitator, instructor, prompter, a resource and finally as an inspiring teacher.