Teaching English in Post Method Era

 Teaching English in Post Method Era

https://xmind.ai/Y8NCZKUY?xid=iiCRfn3B

What’s the step-by-step (proposal) to address this problem? 

To implement conversational clubs and cinemas to foster and enhance speaking skills to reduce the usage of mother language in English classes at Elementary levels reducing the free extended time for students with low speaking abilities. There will be four phases for the implementation of this proposal. It will be developed as follows:

Through the implementation of these four classes based on TBL and communicative approach, as well as collaborative working, students will be able to get immersed into the topics they are interested in. And the objectives are aimed at developing as communicative skills, critical thinking, social skills, fluency among grammar aspects which are implicit through each activity. 

On the other hand, evidence will be taken with photographs and a field diary. 

• Who are your students?  

Students are at Ula; it is an institute in which people can learn English and French. They are a mixed group according to their ages and genres, in each group there is a maximum of 10 learners.  The students acquire programs at a determined time. It could be from 3 to 6 or 12 months. Some students from Elementary levels are presenting a decrease in speaking abilities which is an issue that is affecting their progress in the same studied level, or in contrast, to not achieve the required communicative abilities to succeed the Intermediate levels. At the same time, this issue concerns the teachers at Ula institute because they express that students tend not to use the second language in classroom because they do not feel confident, therefore the institute must extend some students’ contracts by free because students are failing speaking tests, and they must accomplish the levels they signed for in the contracts. 

What do you know about their families, their socioeconomic context, their likes and dislikes, and their learning styles? 

As it is a mixed group, there are some students which are from 16 to 30 years old. Some of them come from private schools and others are from other areas such as engineering. They belong to a medium to high class context, most of students have good quality lifestyle regarding their relatives are also educators or engineers and, in some cases, politicians.  

About their learning styles, I could notice that they like to communicate and interact face to face, they react quite well with audio-visual inputs. At the institute it is remarkable to teach and learn through 3 important pillars which are: communicative, collaborative, and project learning. In classes it is important to abord different styles of teaching by having in mind that some students are audio-visual or kinetic. They do not like topics related to politics, nor specific topics as they usually see in school. They like to share personal experiences, or teaching their abilities based on what they are interested in, such as anime, sports like soccer, roller blading, skating or basketball, technology, and programing. 

• How would your proposal turn English classes into enjoyable life experiences for your students? 

The consequences of this phenomenon are that firstly, teachers’ motivation levels are decreasing because they cannot implement some resources, or plannings because students do not have the required abilities to succeed in that level. Second, on the students’ side, they are not achieving the requirements demanded by the institute because they express that they learn good information but there is not a space in which they can use what they know by speaking freely, for that reason they are not accustomed to use the second language and do not feel comfortable when doing it, that is why some of them spend extra time in completing their language competences. And third, the institute must freely extend students' contracts to they are able to achieve the requirements by the (CEF) and of course, by the institute which is causing to spend economical and human resources in students that are not paying anything else. 

As it was mentioned before this issue is relevant at the institute because it is a factor which is affecting the economic and social resources, and the impact of it could generate a change in different aspects as the quality of the offered educational service, the improvement of English levels of future graduated students, as well as the quality of the classes. Besides, it is an issue that is presented not just in a headquarter, but to a national level in the institute and enhancing it could be an effective way to graduate better and more capable English speakers which will improve and succeed in their personal and professional areas by making them to have better job opportunities as the same time that resources and time wasting is reduced at the institute. 

According to the mentioned before, this proposal would turn English classes more enjoyable because students would find a space in which they are not going to be exposed to grammar or stablished exercises, nor stablished scripts or prepared speeches. They would face an environment in which they can express themselves and share their critical thinking, their perceptions about their interests through the conversational clubs in which they will choose the topic, and teacher will guide them through it. Besides, the cinemas would be developed by selecting movies, videos or content related to students' interests. Both would be addressed to encourage students to speak in English without feeling pressured for making mistakes, just to express freely their proper concepts, ideas or thoughts.  

 • Which resources will you need for implementing your proposal? 

Digital resources as: Tv, screens, cinema platforms, videos 

PROPOSAL

1	Topic	Date	Activity Description	Time	Objective
CINEMA	Social media	October the 26th	Students will discuss the advantages, disadvantages and risks of social media.	90 minutes	To encourage students to speak about their personal experiences when using social media.    To enhance speaking abilities by working in a collaborative approach.    To make them able to reflect on the time they spend and how to improve by giving some advice.
Pre-Task	Students will share ideas about the importance of social media in their Lifes. How much time do they spend on it?  What content do they explore the most? What is the most useful social media? Why?      Students will watch “The social Dilemma”
Task	To create a podcast in which students talk about the advantages, disadvantages and risks of social media in their daily life by giving personal experiences, it is helpful to mention information from “the social dilemma”     Students could represent different roles as: developer, influencer, professor, social media addict, ex social media user, etc...
Post-Task	To reflect and share opinions on the risks of social media and how they can prevent it.     To give some advice for using social media.    *What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media?    *What are some risks of social media?    *Would you try to disconnect from social media?   *How would you imagine life without social media?    *How would you spend your time without social media?  *Is it important to have social media to develop social skills?

2	Topic	Date	Activity Description	Time	Objective
CONVERSATIONAL CLUB	Technological gadgets	October the 29th	Students will discuss the current advances in technology for: health, home, study and sports	90 minutes	To develop critical thinking.    To enhance vocabulary and fluency by debating ideas and giving arguments.    To reflect on current advancement of technology in different aspects of life.
Pre-Task	To talk about personal gadgets and compare lifestyle-Discuss why is it important to be updated with technological devices.
Task	Debate about pros and cons of technological devices in health, sports, and at home.    A group will be supporting the pros and another group the cons. At the end, the teacher will vote for the group who has defended its ideas with the most accurate arguments.
Post-Task	To reflect on the benefits of gadgets in other aspects of human life.    *What kind of devices do you currently use to carry out your tasks?  *Is there any disadvantage if humans employ AI in our daily Lifes?  *What are some advantages of being updated with technological devices?  *What kind of devices do you use? Do you recommend them? Why?    To prepare a short presentation in which students innovate or propose new gadgets and try to convince the public to acquire the product.

3	Topic	Date	Activity Description	Time	Objective
CINEMA	Sports	November the 1st	Students will watch the movie “The Beautiful Game” and discuss about the reflections of the movie	90 minutes	To develop critical thinking by reflecting on past decisions.     To enhance fluency and decision making by analyzing personal experiences.    To develop argumentative skills to talk about past actions.
Pre-Task	Share ideas about challenging situations and how do they were overcome
Task	To watch the movie and discuss the scenes or excerpts that attracted the most attention.  To debate on different possible solutions to each challenge.
Post-Task	To reflect on past actions and decision making.    *What was the most important decision you made?  *Who helped you to make that decision?  *How do you usually make decisions? Do you have a specific plan?  *How would you plan to make a decision?    To debate what is the most accurate way to make a decision.

4	Topic	Date	Activity Description	Time	Objective
CONVERSATIONAL CLUB	Ula’s Got Talent	November the 5th	Students will talk about activities, skills or secret talents they are good at.  They will explain how they become good at... what do they do to train and explain how to be good at...	90 minutes	To share personal talents and experiences by developing speaking skills    To develop social skills by presenting and recognizing people’s hidden talents.    To enhance critical thinking by giving opinions about people’s talents
Pre-Task	Students will think about their secret talents and share their ideas with partners in short conversations. They should include information such as: how long did you realize you could do it? How did you realize you could do it? How did you master it?
Task	The teacher will act as a presenter, and he will introduce each student at Ula’s Got talent. Each student will speak in front of the judges about their talent. Then, he/she will do a presentation, and at the end of each presentation, judges and the public will express their opinions about the presentation and vote for the most impressive one.
Post-Task	To reflect on peoples’ secret talents and highlight all the good aspects of it.  To share opinions about the importance of knowing different aspects of partners as their secret talents.

or this proposal it is easier to work with a field diary due to as teacher, I am going to be participant of the proposal, and it would be hard to implement another kind as a visual diary for example, because first it would take extra time to collect proves and because of the ethical issues as the students involved in terms of images, comments, thought, and all related to the personal information data. Meanwhile a field diary would give me privacy and of course, it would be a good tool for the reason it does not depend on anything more than me, nor resources like audio-visual or devices. Besides it has no rules about using it and is accessible at any time.