My final reflection

I must say that this course helped us to consolidate all the knowlege we have acquired these four last years. This subject was the starting point to know and learn the theories that will prompt us to succeed in our future classes, in terms of performing and doing a good class, and this is because our teacheer was always worried about giving us a wide rage of tools to reach our personal goals as teacher inside a classroom.

According to the contents of this subject, I think they were the foundations to help us to realize about the different teaching methonds that we will have to use in a classroom with our students considering each of our students needs, different problems they may have, different skills levels, pace, and different backgrounds.

I must thank our teacher. She was super motivated and dynamic, very patient, undestandable and nice to all of us. Thank you very much indeed!

TKT Reflection: It is impossible in a class for a teacher to know why a students is making a mistake.

I don't agree with this thought. A teacher has been trained during all his/her proffesional training in different areas of education. If he/she has been properly trained, he/she should be able to identify and notice a student's mistake. Those can be grammar mistakes, pronunciation mistakes, to mention some. For instance, if a student makes a grammar mistake it must be the result of little effort on former teachers to correct or support that student.

Knowing our students help us to realize why they are making mistakes and where they come form. Those can also be the result of issues inside his/her family. Communication with the students is the best way to know why they have problems in learning.

TKT Reflection 7: How did age, ways and context in which you learnt English influence your success at learning?

When I was a child, my parents enrolled me in an English Club. It was taught by an Australian couple. They taught us in a way that I considered it was very didactic. Today that I have learnt a bit more about learning strategies and approaches, I realize that it was the same as I’ve been learning the latest years.
They taught us about Australia, its people, their way of life and its culture using pictures, images and different things. I went to the English Club three times a week after going home from school for almost two years and I learnt a lot. And I stopped studying with them because they went back to Australia.

When I finished school, I kept learning English in different institutions. I did not like the way those institutions taught English because I thought they were going to teach like the Australian couple. These new teachers just focused on grammar. Their pronunciation was not good, they were not motivated. I didn’t like it at all and, and I haven’t been able to find the same motivation to improve and fulfill my goals yet. 

TKT Reflection 6: Which method of learning English would you prefer: communicative, form-focused, grammar-translation, or a combination of these? Why?

I think that I would choose a combination of those because different methods and approaches can be helpful and easily apply according to the topic or grammar point I would have to teach. Even though I consider grammar-translation a bit boring, at lower levels it is necessary to give students feedback in their L1, but using it a whole class, or a whole unit, can be also boring and tiring for me, the teacher, as well as the students.

I cannot say at this stage which method of learning I am going to use with my students for sure. I think it will depend on my working experience and also on the level of the students I would teach at a given time. I also consider that I have to keep studying and learning and being updated with the latest trends and ways of teaching Let’s time goes by; only experience and time would tell.

Reflection 5: What is learning English like?

I think that learning any foreign language means more than learning grammar or vocabulary. It also involves knowing the history, ways of life, custom and traditions that belongs to the people who speak that foreign language.

It is also important to be highly motivated towards learning a second language. That motivation can come from the reason why we are learning English, and keep that goal in mind and never let go that reason. But it must come from the person who is teaching that language. If he or she is not motivated, it is going to be a way more difficult o learn it, no matter how important is our aim.
For me, learning English is all about motivation, either from the student or the teacher.

Reflection 4: Observing a class

This is what I’ve observed:
The teacher starts the class telling the students off. It seems that she doesn’t have any knowledge about classroom management. As a result, students simply act as if she isn’t there and they are very disrespectful. They don’t pay attention to her and don’t work in the class.

The teacher tries to teach her students using the grammar-translation method, but no one listens to her. There is no student-teacher interaction or student-student interaction in terms of the topic of the class, just harsh words among them; therefore they really haven’t learnt much this semester.

Teacher’s motivation doesn’t exist and she is always complaining about education, and asking me why I am study pedagogy. But this class helps me and motivates me a lot, because it encourages me to be a
nice and good teacher.