Saye Zibande

A Drop of the E-Shaping Sea!

‘Language Contextualization’ is the first concept which I was faced with in ‘Shaping course. Here, I learnt many things such as the application of ‘Film in the classroom’. I use and will use films in ‘Writing and Post-modern American Novel’ classes. Also, the other point which I can state is ‘Language Distance’ and the ‘Knowledge of the second Language’. The former refers to how much similarities and differences exist between the learner’s L1 and FL. How we as the teachers should get the usage of this fact? The later refers to what kind of knowledge does the learner has and how he/she can use it? In other words, is there any consistency between learner’s ‘Competence’ and ‘Performance’?

‘Building Language Awareness’ was the second week. One of the ideas which was very interesting for me was the definition of the ‘Independent Learner’. He/she knows 1) How to Learn, 2) What to Learn, and 3) how to eradicate Affective Barriers. Another interesting statement is ‘if the students are used to eat in restaurants (high school education systems), how can we expect them to cook their meals, lay table, and do washing (Learner Independent)’? ‘Language and Learning Awareness’ is a concept which we should develop it.

‘Integrating Skills’ was the fascinating topic of the third week. I read great articles then. One of them is written by Oxford (2001). According to her, by integrating skills, students touch this idea that ‘language is not for getting the passing mark for exams; it is for communication’. And this is very motivating for students.
There are many games which help us to ‘Integrate Skills’. One of the Games which I learn this week and applied in one of my classes was ‘Bang-Bang’ introduced in ITESL journal (2006). Picture No. 1displays the class playing the ‘Bang-Bang’ game.

‘Pair & Group Work’ is the fourth topic to shape our teaching. The first thing that I learnt from group work classes is that teacher should inform students of how to organize the chairs because as Andrewes (n.d.) puts forth, teacher is not going to leave every thing for students, and he/she should monitor the groups. Thus, only if is there a good arrangement for tables, you can move around the students without disturbing them. Also, the very important thing is that when they are sitting in a circle form, and talking to each other (not to teacher), so they feel much more free to communicate in their mother language. Thus, when I go around the classroom, listen very carefully to them and don’t let them to talk in L1.
As Andrewes (n.d.) suggests, one of the great advantages of group work is that it helps the teacher to realize the fact that ‘It is not 100% the responsibility of the teacher to make students learn the language’. Thus, as we learnt in ‘Language Awareness’ week, the learner awareness process makes progress.

‘Critical and Creative Thinking’ is the topic we are just learning this week. One of the important things which I learnt is to have a good preparation for Role Play game. This game pushes the students towards a deeper level of thinking. Also, in turn, the participants, observers, and the teacher should give feedback to the game. The feedback should be SMART, i.e., Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, and Time-bound. These are very important and should always be considered. As a whole, the Role Play games should be ‘Focused, Objective and Instruction Clear, and its Feedback SMART’.

Saye Zibande
KTU, Trabzon

References

Andrewes, S. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/whole_class.shtml.%205/13/2006.
‘Games and Activities for the ESL/EFL Classrooms’. IESL Journal (2006).

http://iteslj.org/c/games.html%205/13/2006.
Oxford, R. (2001). http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/0105oxford.html
‘Role playing games and activities rules and tips’. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.businessballs.com/roleplayinggames.htm%20.%205/15/2006.

Saye's Students:

Picture 1: Through the game of ‘Bang-Bang’, Prep Students review the Vocabulary learnt during the previous week.

Picture 2: Prep students this time review the vocabulary learnt in the last lesson of the previous semester by the game ‘Sentence Race’ introduced in the ‘Integrating Skills’ week. They were informed of this game before, so they came to class reviewing the required vocabulary. The paper in my hand shows ‘I am a paper-recycling teacher’!!