REFLECTIONS ON THE COURSE
TKT1.1 - Grammar
I think studying grammar is a foundation for learning English in general. Grammar is like
algebra: you use formulas replacing xs, ys and zs by your own values. Grammar is one of the
reasonable approaches to learn English especially if you don’t have any opportunity to learn it
through communication. And this approach really works!
When I went to England for the first time, my English tutor was really surprised at the
level of my English, since my grammar was really good.
If you have an opportunity to practice your English speaking skills, it’s important,
however, to intertwine grammar into the learning process. And the best method is playing in an
English class. For example, to learn Present Continuous you can involve your students in
miming. As for my students, they absolutely love it! The task is to mime activities written on
pieces of paper prepared beforehand (they can be unusual, for example, to show a cosmonaut
playing basketball). Other students try guessing the activity and the character asking questions in
Present Continuous.
Grammar is the logic of the language. My students don’t often know what to say if they
don’t have clear ideas in Russian. So, it matters whether you have any ideas or not. Drilling can
be boring but it’s part and parcel sometimes when studying grammar.
Songs are one of the best methods to introduce grammatical structures.
Reading is a good way to acquire grammatical structures: the more you read, the more
you get used to good English grammar.
As for me, I pay much attention to grammar in my classes. And the results are positive less than in a year my students start speaking English with much fewer mistakes.
TKT1.3 – Phonology
When learning English intonation, rhyme and stress it is not essential for the learner to
know terms and special words. It is enough for him just to pronounce the sounds correctly,
copying intonation, rhyme and stress. Listening activities (listening to native speakers, watching
films, drilling exercises) are of great help. Sometimes, students can think that pronunciation is
not an important thing in learning a language, since a lot of people all over the world speak
English with their accent. But it is our task to show that phonology counts and there is a huge
difference between long and short vowels, word stress in a different position.
In my opinion phonological skills should be developed and improved/sustained at every
level of learning English (beginning with elementary and ending with advanced).
TKT1.6 – Writing
Writing in English reflects a learner’s ability to think logically and it is important to teach
him/her to structure his/her ideas in proper order: in well-organized paragraphs and clear
sentences. What I find essential for my work with the students is to identify the purpose of
writing (formal and informal writing, articles, postcards, business letters) and do prewriting
activities with them, e.g. brainstorming, arranging key ideas in order, thinking over introduction
and conclusions, gathering key data and facts.
TKT1.7 – Listening
In our English class we often do the listening for different purposes:
1) Listening for specific information: This is when we listen to a text only to find a particular
piece or pieces of information.
2) Listening for gist: This is when we listen to try and get a general idea of what the text is
about.
3) Listening for detail: When we listen to try and extract the maximum meaning of every word
in the text.
4) Intensive listening: When we listen in order to examine a piece of language, for example to
study the grammar or pronunciation of it.
5) Extensive listening: When we listen to a long text over an extended period of time.
Sometimes when we communicate with English speaking people we try to understand the gist of
the speech, if we listen to a lecture we practice a kind of extensive listening. Sometimes we can
listen to songs and analyze the grammatical structures in them (intensive listening), we can listen
to weather forecasts, so, it is listening for specific information.
TKT1.8 – Speaking
My method of teaching English is more based on accuracy than on fluency. Why speak fast and
make mistakes? If we don’t correct students they will continue making the same mistakes.
However after doing this unit I’ve decided to change the way of my work with the students. So,
it makes sense what you want to get as the output: roleplaying seems to develop creative
thinking skills, so, I think we should give our students a chance to express their ideas without
breaking in their stream of speech. Grammar activities, on the contrary, require our careful
attention and immediate correction!
TKT1.11 – The role of error
Errors are indications of the teaching process. If a student makes a mistake, it means he doesn’t
understand the rule or he doesn’t know how to use the role. If a student makes the same mistake
it means he is careless about his grammar. As for me, I often deal with the second case. And I
hope that the idea of putting down the mistakes into a student’s grammar journal is great and
helpful! When my students learnt about this idea, to tell you the truth, they were not very happy
about it. But I noticed them speaking better from a grammatical point of view!
TKT1.13 – Learners
As I teach English to technical students, I think the analytical learning style is more appropriate
for them. So they can do writing tasks very well (annotations, resumes, formal and informal
letters, etc.), we have no big problems in studying grammar in context. As for the topics are
concerned, I try to find texts appropriate for their age and interests (sports, music, friends,
University, money, etc) to motivate them to express their ideas in English. Films and audio are of
great help too. When I feel they are tired a little bit, watching videos and listening to audios help
to change the mood in a class.
TKT1.14 – Learner needs
I am absolutely happy about the course which has been offering great and helpful ideas in
teaching English. Before the course I thought about improving my teaching methods in general
without having an idea of how to do it. By this stage of the course I have studied useful
information about reading, writing and speaking techniques, I’ve learnt how to increase my
students’ interest to learning English by using different tasks, activities, and means aiming at
developing their key skills and subskills in a non-formal and amusing way.
I hope at the end of the course I will be good at organizing the teaching process in a more
efficient way spending less time on prearranging activities.
TKT1.16 – Activities
One of my favorite activities is roleplaying. Roleplaying brings real life situations into the
classroom developing creative thinking skills and making students have a look at the situation
from another perspective. In a role play students can improve their skills of debating,
negotiating, reasoning and effective communicating. Role-plays teach students to be selfconfident and logical and prepare them for public speaking in future.
I think the “Find someone who…” is one of the best activities in the first classes to find contact
with your new students and to help them feel easy when they see one another for the first time. I
think I will make use of this task on the 1st of September next academic year.
The “Jigsaw reading” seems an efficient activity worth of trying in an English class. Besides its
contribution to students’ developing reading, speaking and listening skills, it encourages
collaboration and you have your students feel success and their personal progress and
achievement. I was really interested in organizing this activity, so I decided to learn more about
it browsing the Internet.
How to use jigsaw
1. Introduce the strategy and the topic to be studied.
2. Assign each student to a "home group" of 3-5 students who reflect a range of reading
abilities.
3. Determine a set of reading selections and assign one selection to each student.
4. Create "expert groups" that consist of students across "home groups" who will read the
same selection.
5. Give all students a framework for managing their time on the various parts of the jigsaw
task.
6. Provide key questions to help the "expert groups" gather information in their particular
area.
7. Provide materials and resources necessary for all students to learn about their topics and
become "experts."
Note: It is important that the reading material assigned is at appropriate instructional
levels (90–95% reading accuracy).
8. Discuss the rules for reconvening into "home groups" and provide guidelines as each
"expert" reports the information learned.
9. Prepare a summary chart or graphic organizer for each "home group" as a guide for
organizing the experts' information report.
10. Remind students that "home group" members are responsible to learn all content from
one another.