University of Dhaka
Institute of Modern Languages
Department of English Language
A Reflective Essay on the ELT Demo Classes: Teaching Speaking
Submitted to: Professor Sayeedur Rahman, PHD
Course Tutor: BESL 402, Teaching Classroom Techniques
Submitted by: Md. Didarul Islam,
Roll: BB-093-003
Exam Roll: 8104
Date of Submission: April 08 2019
English Language Teaching is a practical job. To become a good language teacher, hands on experience along with theoretical knowledge is essential. Theory of language teaching is necessary to understand the issues related to language learning and acquisition, while practical experience helps to connect the theory with real classroom. However, as part of our Teaching Classroom Techniques course, the whole class had to take a demo class. Here, I am going to share my experience of the activity.
Descriptions of the Class:
Academic level: Tertiary.
Language proficiency level: Pre-Intermediate.
Average age: 22 years
Size of the class: 35 Students
Teaching timing: 5 minutes.
Topic/ Activity
I was given 5 minutes time for my demo. I had to select a manageable activity to complete within this time. Therefore, I chose “Leisure Time”. Students had to talk on what they do during their leisure time.
Icebreaking
Getting the consent of the teacher, I started my demo with ICE breaking. I addressed the students (my fellow classmates) in way that I was a familiar teacher to them. I bade them a good afternoon and asked about their health. I told them that we were not to study anything. Rather, we would only talk, chat and have fun in the class. It was my technique to provide the students a nonthreatening environment in the class. I believed that they would learn better with having fun.
Pair Work
I told the class that we must have a topic for discussion. I gave them an interesting topic “leisure time”. Then, I guided them that the discussion would be fruitful if they could form a pairs. I gave them two minutes to talk in pairs. While they were talking, I was observing and helping them if they were struggling with any word or sentence.
Speaking Practice
After the given time, I randomly requested two pairs of people to come in front one by one. They shared about their leisure time activities to the class. Though there were two persons in a pair, they talked about their individual activities.
Feedback
While my students were speaking to the class, I corrected their pronunciation and grammar in a very friendly manner. My point of view was that as a student of pre-intermediate level they need to master accuracy along with fluency. When they finished speaking, I made the whole class give a clap to motivate the speaker. Finally, I told them the importance of practicing speaking to get fluency and suggested them an android app “HaLLo” where they can talk to the English learners throughout the world.
Peer’s Feedback on My Teaching
After the demo, I got feedback on my teaching from the peer. They mainly gave me two wishes:
a. I should not have corrected the grammatical error of the students, as fluency should come first, not accuracy.
b. I could let speak only one student from each pair.
I found the second suggestion from Ahmadullah Siyam to be the most useful feedback.
Teacher’s Feedback on My Teaching
My teacher agreed with the feedback given by my peer. He also advised me to note the criticisms or feedback well, but not try to defend my stance.
My Own Reflection
I really felt that the feedback given by me fellows was effective. I think that I could have asked one student from the pair about the leisure time activities of his partner. This could make them interested to speak more in the activity.
The Best Performance in My View
According to my personal opinion, Yasir Arafat’s Demo was the best. The reason is he used a very well designed material for speaking from the New Headway book. He had a full control over the class, and he dealt with the inconsistency of the class well. For example, one our fellow did not cooperate Arafat with an activity. Then, Arafat gave him a slight punishment with a repeated up down game.
