Today's entry somehow pretends to draw a portrait of a teacher considered “not so well-performing” in our Valencian English classroom.Take it with a pinch of salt and draw your conclussions.
We'll go thru some of the most common in-class features, or failures, in terms of teaching practice, and which are particularly applicable in our context.
Let's liven up bilingual lifestyles with our lively teachers
-keep it up (and alive - source: Nov 2010)
-keep it up (and alive - source: Nov 2010)
How much truth can you find in it? Is the transcript as good as it gets?
- How realistic is this description of class life?
- What chunks of the transcript
- Where do you find it unbelievable?
- As the stereotype goes, How many times does the teacher say: please, hush! keep silent! don't be noisy? Are they silent all the way?
- Acceptable CLT? (Communicative Language teaching)
- TTT? (T's Talking Time) / TDT? T's Doing Time)
- How much English was NOT understood?
- How better/worse can it get?
We can envisage a classroom with 26 pupils of ESO (11-y-o).
Today is Thursday, at the 3rd hour. You are their English teacher.
Take it as a would-be classroom in your town.
Today is Thursday, at the 3rd hour. You are their English teacher.
Take it as a would-be classroom in your town.
Names represent anyone, but it is based on reals individuals.
Let their ignorance not be shared!
Let their ignorance not be shared!
Characters: Teacher + 15 students:Amanda + Luis + Joan + Fran + JessiKa + Joel + Federico + Yolanda +Jesús + Ricardo + Nieves +Arturo + Marisol + Pep + Alfonso + María
(11:10)Teacher: G'morning boys and girls, Let's start with the vocabulary related to food. Unit 5, page 34. I'm going to write 5 headings/ 5 categories on the board
(I write them FOOD in big red letters, and then
liquids, vegetables, fruits, deserts, meat).
Write down as many words as you know.
Amanda: ¿En inglés?
T: Yes, better than in German, in English, please. Luis. Profe, ¿How many categories?
T: FIVE. How many can you see on the whiteboard? Luis: A mi no me caben.
T: Maybe, you can put the paper across, on the other way... "apaisada", you say. D'you understand?
Luis: ¿què significa apaisada?
T: Horizontal, like that, you see: I mean this way (I show the position of the paper)
Joan: ¿What title ... ponemos?
T: Why not “Food”, it's on the board.
Fran: ¿can I do it a lápiz?
T: You cannot, Fran. We said that in our notebooks we use the pen, not the pencil, remember?(11:18)
Jessika:¿Cóm es diu pepino?
T: it's better we start with the vocabulary YOU understand. Not the one I know. Let's start, Jessi.
Joel: ¿El huevo es una verdura?
T: No, I would say it's NOT a vegetable, right? Federico: ¿And what title ponemos?
T: did I say Food already twice. Copy the title, the RED letters.
Amanda: Tengo una duda ¿Se puede poner “rechicken”?
Yolanda: No, You mean 'repollo', it's a different word in English (rialles generalitzada)
T: Thanx Yolanda.
Nieves : ¿Cómo se dice calamar?
T: I said the words you already know. Do not ask me in the next 3 minutes. Write something. Do it now.
Jesús : ¿Hi ha que fer-lo al quadern?
T: Better! We don't want to clean the table after we finish the class, Jesús. ...
Ricardo: Profe, ¿Pero, qué hay que hacer?
T: ¿But can you tell me how many of you didn't wash your ears this morning?
Nieves : ¿Puedo poner zumo en la categoría de postres?
T: What about if you write it under the category of "Liquids".
Fran: ¿Puedo poner pollo en la categoría de postres?
T: Not in this continent, I guess.
............................ (11:25) ....
T: right. Time is up. The three minutes are gone. Ready to tell me your words? Let's go. Would you raise your hand, put it up, and you read out your words?; I will copy them under the headings, is that clear? How many vegetables have you got?
(10 pupils raise their hands and
start shouting their contributions)
- Brócoli!
- Salad!
- Carrots!
- Pepination!
- Eggs!
T: No, I think, didn't I?, I've just said eggs are NOT vegetables, ok? (big sigh) Y POR favor, levantad la mano Y-ESPERAD a que yo os nombre para decir la palabra porque-no-tengo 10 orejas para entenderos a todos al mismo tiempo. Let's go, then. ¡Arturo, no le pases notitas a María ..... que se las leo al resto de la clase!
Arturo: ¿con cual empezamos?
T: With vegetables, please. Can you start, Marisol?
Marisol: Why me? Es que se m'ha olvidat el quadern a casa.
T: 15 minutes gone, and you just discovered you have no notebook! What have you done in these 15 minutes, little creature? Anybody, any volunteer, will you Pep? Alfonso?
Pep: qui, jo?
T: You are our only and unique Pep in class, so it must be you, right?
Pep: OK... Oranges.
T: Vegetables, remember? Green things. So, your oranges should go under fruits, please.
Alfonso: Teacher, el otro día oí un chiste verde, Can I tell it?
T: Although there are 'verdures de per mig', no, no you can NOT. María: ¿Esto cae ..in the exam?
T: Bueno, with a bit of luck I may be recuperándome de esta clase en un sanatorio mental, y entonces no habrá examen.
Todos: Super!
Arturo: ¿con cual empezamos?
T: With vegetables, please. Can you start, Marisol? Marisol: Why? Es que se m'ha olvidat el quadern a casa.
T: 15 minutes, and you just discovered you have no notebook! What have you done in these 15 minutes, little creature? Anybody, any volunteer, will you Pep? Pep: qui, jo?
T: You are our only and unique Pep in class, so it must be you, right? Pep: Oranges.
T: Vegetables, remember? Green things. So, your oranges should go under fruits, please. Alfonso: Teacher, el otro día oí un chiste verde, Can I tell it?
T: Although there are 'verdures de per mig', no, no you can NOT. María: ¿Esto cae ..in the exam?
T: Bueno, with a bit of luck I may be recuperándome de esta clase en un sanatorio mental, y entonces no habrá examen. Todos: Super!
Rounding off.
Paraphrasing Huxley's quote:
"A Teaching Experience is not what happens to any teacher; it is what these teachers do with what happens to them"
A pang of nostalgia? How different were your English classes?
Write comments with your own version.
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References.Narrative based on a well-know joke on English teachers.
--> Luke Prodromou’s “How to be a boring teacher” (http://www.etprofessional.com/articles/howtobea.pdf),
-->
Let students do nothing
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Teach the book
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Be right all the time
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Assume students know nothing
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Sit still
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Be predictable
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Speak in a monotone
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Make sure students are idle
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Lose your students
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Keep talking
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"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him." — Aldous Huxley (Texts and Pretexts)
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