About Grammar Teaching

I found that Group Two provided a quite smooth transition during their presentation. As the first presenter, Shirley did her job that she gave students clear instructions about what they were going to show in class. Besides, I really appreciated that they applied a game as the warm-up activity. It was a nice shot indeed, since my concentration was caught and I kept looking forward to what the coming show was. Still, there was a great interaction between the teacher and students. In a word, Group Two really succeeded in meeting those points which I think they are rather difficult to achieve as a beginner.

To strike a balance between both extremes of a structured based curriculum and the interaction in class, I have an idea that playing board games might be helpful. Once I went to Wall Street language institution, I found board games were largely used in class, including Snakes & Ladders and clue games. A foreign teacher would explain the targeted grammar structure first by presenting a certain situation or story telling. Then it was time to practice by playing board games which were structure-based communicative activities. While students were involved in the game, our foreign teacher jotted down mistakes we made. Later on, teacher explained proper usage of words and grammar in response. I think that teaching grammar in this way quite fits into cognitive approach to the communicative one.

Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun.

There are some certain effective ways to learn when it comes to vocabulary teaching. Definitely it is quite helpful to pick up vocabulary by learning English prefixes and word roots beforehand. Making interesting associations with words is as useful as the method mentioned above. Here’s an example, use your imagination to think about the word, “assiduous” which means someone is diligent. Draw your imagination that the former three letters “ass” which can be thought of “work ass out.” Here’s the connection then that someone works his ass out indicates that the person is assiduous. Wouldn’t it be fun learning vocabulary? Besides, learners will keep those words more impressively in mind.

Comments for Group #1

It’s admirable that you shot the film by yourselves. In the self-made video, your acting is quite natuarally. This video certainly draw my attention. Apart from what we evaluate in class about your weaknesses, you seemed to leave a moment of blank during the transition to another activity. That’s why my excitement failed to last all the way to the end of your presentation. Anyway, I like your self-made video. Good for you!:-)

The must-have scientific knowlege

There are three points I came up with. First,teachers of a foreign language ought to be familiar with linguistic. They’d better have concepts of word origin. Then, they must know the pronunciation, like phonetics. Besides, they ought to have the ability to pronounce accurately. Last, teachers of the field should understand the background of American culture which is of great helpful while teaching.

Is teaching a craft or a science?

If you give a quick look on this question, it’s hard to answer to which one does the teaching belong. But just think about it, a craft seems like an activity that involves only skill and training without any academic knowledge. Well, I don’t think teaching in this part at all. My further analysis is that teaching involves both of the two, craft and science.
Take us for example, we are now in the process of learning scientific techniques about teaching. I assume it’s the essential foundation as a future teacher. After we pick up these things, it’s time for us to put theories we know into practice. We have to apply them again and again while teaching so that practice makes perfect. Therefore, craft and science play important roles in teaching. It is that the chronological difference that makes these two terms hard to be drawn a line between.
Okay. If you really want to get the exact answer, I would say teaching is a science essentially.
Put it as a footnote, for the fear of teaching becoming a craft after the repetition of skills, teachers should work out some fancy ideas to make your teaching style attractive. Sort of like a decoration along with scientific knowledge, I might say.

What’s my teaching philosophy and beliefs?

As the moment of internship is just around the corner, I’m quite nervous handling with students indeed. I strongly hold the idea that teaching is like a show or an art. Teacher is an exact person who gives the performance which got to be fantastic. As long as you stand on a platform, you should make yourself an eye opener. That allows a teacher giving a lesson effectively without yelling and shouting to students simply for class controlling. In the meantime, you are initiating a positive atmosphere in class. I think learners are much more willing to get knowledge in this learning situation. In addition, it is important to trigger students’ interests. If they find their interests in a certain subject, they study for themselves, instead of annoying tests.

Hello world!

Hey! I’m Steph. Here’s my place to write something about the cource for English Teaching. Also, I’m glad to have all your visits.