Week 7

Week 7.

The issue of Learner Autonomy raised this week is a very topical for me as a university teacher. In the article “Interconnections: Learner Autonomy Teacher Autonomy” it is stated that learner autonomy is dependent on teacher autonomy. If teachers in educational institutions are not autonomous to decide on the content, methods of teaching and forms of assessment, there is little room for learner autonomy. In Ukraine there are comparatively not strict restrictions in universities what subjects to teach, how long the courses should be, what textbooks to use etc. Of course there are guidelines and recommendations of Ministry of Education and university authorities. There are obligatory subjects, set hours for obligatory disciplines, the accepted system of assignment, but there is a variable part where the departments and even the chairs can autonomously decide on the disciplines to teach, their content and forms of their presentation. In this respect teacher autonomy is preserved. But another issue bothers me. I have presented it in my fist post to Nicenet. Due to the historical peculiarities of my country’s development, the necessity to be lead and governed by the authority is deeply rooted in many people. Fortunately, younger generation is more free to decide on their own and reflect critically, to be discerning citizens. But still some of them (not all!) are reluctant to accept new ways of teaching, where they are provided with the responsibility for their learning. This problem is very vital, both our teachers and students are to be shown the ways how to become autonomous and self-directed (I understand this as being motivated to learn something on one’s own, carry out independent research, do more than it is prescribed, but not simply doing a set of drilling exercises at home as an individual assignment). But it is easier said than done, and on finishing this course, next academic year I want to start with myself and reorganize my courses, implementing the principle of autonomous learning.

This week I am working on my Project Plan as  I am currently not teaching. This is due to the objective reason: this year my country hosts Euro2012, a football championship, and the terms of the academic year have been shortened. My students are having summer holidays now. I am working on implementing technology and web resources into developing critical thinking in EFL course.

Week 6

The materials of this week are the most valuable for me from the beginning of the course.  As I lecture on several linguistic disciplines and have to teach large classes, the issues raised are highly topical for me. It is not so simple to deliver a lecture, I must not only dwell on serious scientific questions but also control how the students comprehend the material and can apply it in practice. It’s an undeniable fact that the role of a lecturer has greatly changed recently. The lecturer is not the single source of information as he used to be in the times of first universities. Today students have wide access to information and can find and learn about any problem raised in the course. That’s why the position of the lecturer and the methods of presenting the material in the classroom need thorough reconsideration. To many questions, which I put to myself, I found definite answer in the articles we were to read. Most of all I liked ‘Teaching large classes”, “Online assessment”, “Interactive lectures summaries of 36 formats” and ‘Presenting with Power Point”. These articles helped me to systematize my ideas how to involve and motivate my students during lectures on theoretical linguistic disciplines and how to promote their active learning and critical thinking skills. For them not to be “little vessels ... ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim” (Ch. Dickens “Hard Times”), but active discerning citizens.

One more issue that is of great interest for me is online assessment. I have read how to make an online test with Blackboard, the Grade Center. I consider this task is a rather challenging one and I haven’t tried it yet.

This week I am working on my Webquest. It is based on the topic “Profession of a Teacher”. I am slow with it as I plan it to be a part of my project. I am looking for some interesting sites to incorporate into it and work out the instructions.

WEEK 5

So, it is the middle of the course. Week 5 was very interesting and fruitful. Time and again I say to myself how lucky I am to be a participant of this very course!!!

The problems raised in this week discussions are really engaging. I shared my experience on applying self and peer assessment in my lessons and it was very instructive to know Celeste’s and my classmate’s thoughts on these issues. What I have understood from this discussion that I have to improve my knowledge on systems of education in different countries. As while discussing sometimes it seemed to me that though we used English, we were speaking a different language. Frankly speaking, I could not understand why my classmates (Sandra and Georgia) raised the problem of impossibility to use projects in some curricula. Then I saw the same problem raised by Han Nah in his post about education in Korea. Only after that I have realized how important it is to be aware of differences between cultures and countries. What is accepted in one country, maybe not in another.

One more thing that was of great benefit for me and my colleagues is rubrics. The site    http://rubistar.4teachers.org/    is really  something! I have made up l rubrics for essays, literary text comprehension and oral presentation. We have already discussed them with my colleagues and decided to use them in our course. That is really great!!!

WebQuest… I have some ideas how to implement it into my course, I am working on it but I need to think over the sites to suggest.

Week 4

So, another week comes to an end. Another week of new impressions. It was interesting to know a lot of new and useful things about teaching writing, reading and vocabulary using technology. There are so many useful sites that I haven’t even imagined! Still I do not have enough time now to study these sites carefully so I keep bookmarking all links in my Delicious not to miss anything.

This week we have discussed our classroom problems that could be solved by using technology. I have been thinking about this for the whole week. Reading my classmates’ posts I see that I have the same problems as they do. Though my students are university graduates majoring in English Linguistics, they also have certain problems with grammar, writing, reading, vocabulary. It was not easy for me to formulate a definite problem me group face. Because some of my students are better in grammar, other are better in writing, and other - in speaking etc., but all of them have to master the same material from the course book. In a word, the traditional course book contains activities which are to be done by all the students irrespective of their actual abilities. What I have learned from Jerek Krajka’s article “Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction” (and  what I will try to implement into my lessons) that the use of the Web in the classroom gives both the teachers and the students the element of  choice and variety. Each student can get an individual activity which will be interesting for him and correspond to his level. The task of a teacher is only to carefully select the activities suitable for a particular student.

To write a lesson plan … well… in the University we don’t have to write detailed lesson plans as school teachers do. I plan my lessons but in a way of activities to be done without detailed descriptions of materials, procedures and so on… well… I am still working over on my lesson plan….

This week is very busy for me because the academic year comes to an end and I have to check different tests and papers, then credits, exams ... But I try my best to cope with the tasks of Week 3.

To sum up my reflections on Week 3, I'd  like to say I that I find Delicious interesting and  comfortable. Now I try to save all interesting for me links from our Discussions in my stacks. 

Reading the suggested articles on computer assisted pronunciation and listening teaching, I came across an issue I have been pondering on for  some time. This is what in Maria Grazia Busa'a article "New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation" is named a foreign accent. It is said that "the ultimate goal of pronunciation teaching should not be to eradicate foreign accent, but rather to promote pronunciation which is reasonably intelligible, as intelligible pronunciation is considered an essential component of communicative competence". I can't fully agree with this statement, because if we speak about teaching a foreign language as a means of basic communication, than maybe it is correct. But when it goes about trainee teacher (as my students are), whose primary occupation is to teach a language to others, pronunciation must be one of the main concerns. These students should have decent pronunciation, as they will go to schools and will teach their pupils  the same   reasonably intelligible pronunciation.   In this respect, the materials of the sites, dedicated to pronunciation and listening skills training, are useful tools to improve both teachers' and students' skills. What I like about the computer assisted pronunciation and listening activities, that they contain authentic materials, can be done both as in- as out- of class activities, students can work independently and have the feedback immediately. 

During Week 2 I have gained much valuable information on the following: 

Firstly, I have learnt how to write the objective to a lesson in a new unusual to me way. I think that a teacher cannot come into the classroom without having a clear objective of the lesson: what to teach, what to expect from the students, and how to evaluate. In this respect Dr Bob Kizlik’s idea that “fuzzy thinking might get you through the day, but it will never get you through a career” (Kizlik, 2012) deserves my strongest support. Frankly speaking, I was taught to present objectives of a lesson in a bit different manner, but my personal opinion is that the one we used in the course is better and more laconic.

Secondly, I have found out and tried so many nice search engines from Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need. This experience is most useful for me because I am convinced that who possesses information, possesses the world. Following the threads of our discussions of Week 2 I tried my best to link practically to all the sites mentioned by my teacher and classmates. Some of these sites are really fascinating and provide interesting resources.

Thirdly, I have improved my skills on Internet search. The tips from “Technology Tip of the Month” (Healey, 2003) helped me greatly to make a proper query in the search engines I used and lessen the number of irrelevant hits.

And last but not least, I have communicated with my teachers and classmates and discussed some interesting issues. This experience was very engaging.

In addition, translating my reflections on the assignments of Week 2 into actions I have made some practical steps to integrate the gained knowledge into my teaching practice. For example,  I prepared some activities for my students using the resources from the given list. On Friday I tried with my students the debate on the topic  “Advertisements do more harm than good” from http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=717.   We discussed advantages and disadvantages of advertising basing on the resource developed by Richard Penny (Finland). The debate was rather heated and my students liked it immensely.

Though I don't work with school children I found many  interesting sites for my daughter. She is 6 and learns English. We added into Favourites the http://kids.yahoo.com/games, and http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/pizza-and-chips. These interactive sites suggest many vocabulary and grammar games as well as videos. I have mentioned that I have no experience of teaching English to kids, that’s why only I “experiment” with my daughter. I see that when we work with a book, she is not interested much. But when we watch a cartoon or play a computer game she is more engaged in studying and remembers better.

I have added the tips on Internet search into my seminar materials on Information Search for Research on Linguistics.

            So, in a whole I consider that this week was rather productive for me.

Week 1 is full of surprises. It seems to me that I haven't done such extensive reading for  a long period of time. I have visited all blogs and read everything presented by my classmates , and I was deeply impressed by their  skills and creativity. Now I see what I must strive to!!!  I like all the blogs because each of them represents a person who created it. Some blogs are really superb. The only thing that worries me a little bit is that for a while I have some difficulties with posting comments and  I can't  communicate with my classmates  personally on their blogs (but hope I'll cope with this).

 I would like to say that the idea of introducing the countries we live in is great. It was so interesting to learn  about  Serbia on Marija' blog. I have made up my mind to suggest this video about my country, Ukraine.

I hope you will enjoy this video and my country.

This week Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter.  So, let this joy of Easter  fill up your heart today and forever. Happy Easter!