Teaching Reflections

I feel that my attitude to teaching has been changed incredibly by this course, as I now realise that teaching is not all about the teacher, it is about the learners. I remember a time when my university lecturer told me the real meaning of the word education, and how it is to draw out knowledge from the students themselves. This has been more and more apparent to me throughout my time on the course so far. Having only had the experience of a student teacher during my gap year, I realise that there is so much more to teaching when it is structured. Therefore through learning about certain teaching methods that I have seen being used during my own school experiences, I can now see how powerful their effects are in the classroom. Methods such as peer correction, eliciting and pair feedback have especially increased my understanding of teaching, as I have made the step from not really understanding what they were used for, to now feeling the importance of them. I also feel that my attitude towards teaching has become slightly more light hearted, as I have realised that one of the best ways to make a lesson productive is to ensure that the students not only enjoy themselves, but that they also have the opportunity to converse, express their opinions and laugh.

Through both professional teacher and peer observation, I have begun to think about what I now consider to be the most important elements of good English teaching. During my first observation on day one of the CELTA course, I watched a professional teacher teach an upper-intermediate class. I noticed the clarity and speed and at which the teacher spoke when giving instructions and clarifying questions, which the class responded very well to. I therefore now consider a clear, projecting voice an important part of English teaching, as it eliminates any confusion the students may feel. During my second week, I observed a fellow trainee teach a pre-intermediate class. By watching him integrate with the students by using personal examples throughout the class as well as taking the time out to converse with them before and after the class, I now consider having an approachable manner a very important element of good English teaching. This allows the students to have a certain level of comfort with the teacher, which increases the ease of managing the class. I also managed to observe an advanced class being taught by a professional teacher. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the amount of information that the teacher managed to elicit from the students, with minimum TTT (teacher talking time). This proved extremely effective as the students managed to remember the majority of information learnt during the lesson due to the fact that they had produced it themselves. Therefore, I consider eliciting information from the students an extremely important element of good English teaching.

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