a. What results did you obtain with the development of your proposal?
With the development of the proposal, I obtained some interesting results which could be important for students regarding the learning of a new language. More than numerical or measurable results, students could overcome their limits when expressing ideas and sharing their life experiences and other comments in English. It was not an easy process, and I can say that it is not completed at all. But I confirm that students’ performance when speaking English could improve at least, much more significantly than following the boring and structured lessons they used to be.
The reason I can affirm it is because at the beginning, before the proposal was applied students felt uncomfortable when speaking English, they spoke by writing and reading at all the time. That was the first change I could notice. At the very first lesson, they started to do it. It was, think, write, and speak. Every time they needed to say something they used to repeat the same steps. In that situation, I understood that it was important to connect with them not just as a teacher figure, but as a person who was learning with them. Maybe not at the same level, not the same content, but of course learning about their process and how to address it to improve lessons to be more enjoyable and pleasing.
Something I learned was the meaningful and magnificent power of speaking with them without creating anxiety because of the grading process, nor the mistakes or related eventualities which just get students worried about the grades forcing them to completely ignore their process. That is why we live in a society in which it is more important to have a good grade than to learn something meaningful. We were not taught to normalize failure, it is seen as a negative result, but it is not. Failure is one of the thousand results somebody can have, and it is pretty important to teach people that to fail is the path to success. When students understand it, things start changing.
As it was mentioned previously, things started to change. Students took risks when speaking, they felt motivated to make mistakes when participating and they avoided applying the same three steps (think, write, read) And just went for thinking, and speaking. Even if they made mistakes, they enjoyed the experience, they felt like they released a big pressure. As one of them told me “Finally, I could do it on my own”. The next sessions were full of participation and at the end of each session, they used to communicate their likes about each class. Most opinions were related to they needed to feel in an environment in which they could find something mandatory (participation) but at the same time, free (not graded).
To sum up, the result was positive in terms of increasing participation and reducing anxiety in speaking activities. As well as the students’ performance relatively improved, the class enjoyment enhanced.
b. What were the most meaningful changes in your pedagogical practices?
According to my pedagogical practices I can say that as educators, we should re-think our profession. I mention it because of course, I reflected on it, and I understood something important that most of the time, we could be ignoring. Due to my experience working as Languages teacher, and the shared experiences among my colleagues, I could notice that there were lots of times when the educational profession is perceived as a job in which we just give content to students. I mean, as teachers we just follow curriculum, content, and so on. But, how about considering that we give a service? And how about the quality of it? Are we improving our service? What am I doing to enhance it? I am not trying to reduce the teaching profession into a simple consumerist perspective, but it is a fact. We live in a society where we depend on each other. So, including the previous questions could serve as a path to open my mind and start looking for different perspectives, approaches, methodologies and other tools which can enhance my labor as educator.
Of course, something key is to have always students’ needs, contexts, experiences, likes, dislikes as an axis to mediate the educational process, as well as their human aspect which must be highlighted in classes. To share their thoughts, beliefs, goals, feelings and emotions. We need to start offering classes in which students feel safe, confident and motivated as they do in a group with friends.
c. What reflections derived from the implementation of your proposal led you to introduce modifications in your pedagogical practices?
First of all, to include a part in classes in which I can converse with learners to share experiences, feelings or emotions. That allows them to feel part of the class not just from a student perspective but also as a human being. Considered as a sensible subject which needs to be heard. Secondly, it is meaningful to consider students’ opinions for the class enhancement. They are the first resource from which we as educators must improve and get feedback. It is important to be creative, but it is quite important to include learners in the development of their process. Third, to foster learners to make mistakes. To teach that failure is normal. There is no success without failure. And it is a long road.
d. What were the main difficulties you went through and how did you overcome them?
The main difficulty I went through was students’ class assignment due to at the institute they do not follow a specific schedule, students are not preassigned to it, they are responsible for doing it. So, in every lesson there were one or two new students which did not follow the whole process. On the other hand, there were some difficulties with resources when on few occasions the internet was not able, and the lesson needed to be rescheduled.
For tackling down the first situation, it was necessary to promote conversational clubs and cinemas with at least 5 days in advance to notify students which were involved since the beginning of the proposal. In that way they were able to get vacancy on the lesson and assure the process. For the second situation, it was a little bit more difficult due to the learners’ availability. The third lesson was missed by at least three students. So, unfortunately, they did not take the complete proposal activities.
e. Did you reach the purposes you intended to achieve with the proposal?
Reflecting on it I could say that I did not do it a hundred percent. To reach purposes completely would take more time, more planning, more variety, collecting data, and a continuous mediation process. On the contrary, on the students’ side, I would say that even if they do not develop their speaking skills in a wide range, it would have been possible if they had more lessons. Of course, their confidence also increased widely even if they had few lessons, they served to give them the momentum needed to encourage them to continue applying confidence in other classes.
On the other hand, the most important of this proposal was achieved. They changed the perception of learning languages; they do not consider it as difficult as they used to, they were encouraged to take risks and to avoid getting stopped because of having failures. They experienced something different, something real and of course something they enjoyed, and I am sure they will ask for it to be implemented with more frequency.
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