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Task 4: Reflective Teaching

Reflective practice is central to a teacher’s development as it helps the teacher to

analyse and evaluate what is happening in the classroom so that they can both
improve the quality of their teaching and provide better opportunities for students
to learn (Farrell, 2015).

If you are interested in learning more about Reflective Practice in English

Language Teaching, you can find out more through these resources:

Farrell, T.S.C. (2015). Promoting Teacher Reflection in Second Language

Education: A framework for TESOL Professionals. London: Routledge.

Reflective Teaching: Exploring our own classroom practice:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/reflective-teaching-exploring-
our-own-classroom-practice

Farrell, T.S.C. Reflective Teaching. TESOL International Association.

Sample chapter:
http://www.tesol.org/docs/books/bk_ld_reflectiverteaching_776.pdf?sfvr
sn=2

Below on page 2, (task 4.1; 4.2; and 4.3) are three activities to help you reflect
on what you have learnt so far on this course. You can use these to help you
collect and organise your thoughts for the assignment in the next part of the
Speaking Module.

Please note: these activities are not assessed and are for your own
development. There is no need to send anything to the tutor at this stage.

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Task 4.1: Read the article ‘Lesson Planning from the Heart’ by Duncan Foord
again, and use it as a checklist to reflect on your classroom performance.

•Is there anything you have or haven’t tried in class?

•Is there anything new for you?
Make some notes, and add the reflection as an entry to your Journal (Reflection
on current teaching speaking strategies) – see below.

Task 4.2: Watch the video ‘Strategies for teaching speaking’ again, and if
necessary, refer to the ‘Lesson Planning from the Heart’ article and plan a
speaking task for your learners. They could talk about their favourite food, their
favourite holiday destination or anything related to their interests and their lives.
Make sure you include a feedback stage (where you look at some good and some
not so good examples of student production).

Write a short reflection, focusing on

• how this lesson was different from your previous lessons in terms of STT
(Student talk time) and
• how this lesson was different from your previous lessons in terms of
speaking fluency.
Add the reflection as an entry to your Journal (Reflection on lesson planning and
teaching task) – see below.

Task 4.3: Use the task you prepared for Task 3: ‘My Speaking Lesson’ in class
and write a brief reflection focusing on:
• three things that worked well in the plan and
• one thing you would change or do in a different way.
Add the reflection as an entry to your Journal (Reflection on lesson design task) –
see below.

These reflection tasks should help you to complete the Assignment using
the template ‘Journal Entries’ in the next part of the Speaking Module,
‘My Speaking Journal’.

NB – The following page will be offered as a Word template in the next part of the
Speaking Module, so please do not worry about not being able to write below.

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Online Teacher Support
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JOURNAL ENTRIES
Reflection on current teaching speaking strategies

Reflection on lesson planning and the teaching task

Reflection on lesson design task

Summary

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Online Teacher Support