Part IV: Teaching Materials AL 6962: Practicum II Reflection

I took AL 6962: Practicum II in TESOL during my final semester, Spring 2013. I taught an IELTS/TOEFL prepatory class located on HPU's Downtown campus. My students were mainly from ELS and the International Bridge Program. They were adults over the age of 18 who are studying in Hawaii anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. They were mostly from the Middle East and Asian countries. Their regular English classes are focused on academic English to prepare them for college-level English courses with native speakers. Most of them were at a high-intermediate level English, which means they can speak and write about familiar topics, but might have difficulty if faced with a previously unknown topic. Some, however, could be considered beginners and not able to communicate full sentences in English very well. We met every Thursday afternoon from 3:30- 5pm.

For the first few weeks, I taught the IELTS orientation class while Professor Jean Kirschenmann, my mentor teacher, taught the practice class. If it was the students first time coming to our program, they would go into a separate room with me where I would orient them to the structure and expectation of the IELTS test, give examples on different sections on the test, and illicit responses on how they would answer certain questions for practice. Then the next week, they would enter Professor Jean's room, where she would focus on their specific needs in regards to the IELTS: some wanted more attention on the face-to-face interview portion while others worried about their English writing skills.Since the class was voluntary, there was no attendance or assessment in the orientation classes I taught and there was no way of knowing

how many students would be present. On average, I had about 3 students a week, the most bring 10 and the least being 0. Over the course of the semester, however, we slowly transformed the program into a TOEFL focused standardized prep class (though IELTS was still mentioned in the orientation for comparison). After this transition, I moved from the orientation classroom to the main classroom and became the main teacher. One thing I maintained when teaching this class was my belief that meaning drives form. Giving the students an authentic English example before breaking the lesson into incremental sections will motivate the students to pay more attention because they have a goal set in their mind. For example, before having the students practice a speaking activity from the TOEFL test (in which they had 45 seconds to give their opinion on a topic), I would play an audio clip. The audio clips always began with a single question, and many responses had different opinions on the question. I would then explain to the students that there is no right or wrong answer to these questions; they just have to focus on providing details. By doing this, I definitely noticed an increase in attention from the students, and by modeling the activity the students understood what I was asking them to do without a lot of instruction. During this practicum experience, I was also able to see the strengths in myself as a teacher. In life, I make sure to have a positive attitude no matter what the situation is and I was pleased to find that the sometimes stressful environment of teaching did not take that core aspect of my personality away. Although my practicum experience was very rewarding, it was often difficult due to the fact that it was a new, voluntary program; we didnt know how many people were going to come, week-by-week, and the students English was multi-leveled. I also felt comfortable suggesting small tips after each activity on how they could do that activity at home. For example, I suggested that the students find an elllo clip, listen to it first without the script,

then listen to it with the script, and then try to answer the question themselves. I wanted every activity to be treated as an opportunity to build student autonomy outside of the classroom, especially since we only met once a week. My mentor teacher informed me that as a native English speaker, I need to cut back on the quantity of speech and increase the quality; that is, I need to be more concise when teaching. I had often struggled with time management in my practicum teaching I would worry that we would not get through every activity and so increased my speed and pace. However, I now think it is more important to make sure the students understand the lesson and my instruction. I know that this is something that I will have to continuously work on throughout my teaching career. Another lesson I learned from this practicum experience was how to deal with a voluntary multi-level class. There were many times during my lessons that I was unsure how advanced to make my own English. The TOEFL test uses very challenging English and I did not know if speaking at a lower level was going to do a disservice to the students in the long run as they would then be unprepared for the level the TOEFL test expects. In one of the evaluations after a video-recorded lesson, I posed this dilemma to my mentor teacher, who informed me that in this particular circumstance, since its voluntary, we should ensure that even the lowest level English learner understands the activities clearly. The more advanced English learners can then adapt the activities to their own English level. I definitely felt myself growing more comfortable with teaching as the semester wore on; particularly in terms of timing and standing in front of everyone. I learned that by timing myself as I wrote out my lesson plans, I was able to better predict the length of each activity and make sure I was setting a good pace for the lesson. During class, keeping a simple timer app on my

phone also helped the lesson run smoother, because I didnt have to physically turn around every ten minutes or so to the wall clock to make sure I was on schedule I simply had to glance down on my desk. This also ensured that the students didnt feel rushed during the TOEFL speaking practice activities, since I was no longer facing away from them to watch the wall clock. I also felt more comfortable speaking in front of a classroom although I had presented during presentations and conferences, I had never had the sole command of a group of people on me for an hour and fifteen minutes. This took some adjusting to, but now I feel confident when I stand up in front of a class and not as nervous. In conclusion, I am very glad that I was able to partake in such an innovative, malleable practicum experience because it has made me more adept at handling unexpected surprises in teaching situations. I was worried, at first, that a standardized preparatory class would be boring and not creative enough for someone as full of energy as myself. However, I now see that boring classes only happen when teachers do not take the time to format authentic, goal-specific activities for the lessons and for the students. I had a lot of fun teaching this class, my students came back week after week, and I feel more confident in myself as a teacher after completing the course.