Gabi Kotlubaj
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thank you Susie! I loved the workshop, in particular the fact that you demonstrated with such ease that drilling can be fun!! As a non-native teacher of English, I can’t stress it enough that without drilling there is no proper learning- understanding the meaning of a new word is not enough for students to use the word confidently and accurately outside the classroom. As a learner I was not drilled enough and oftentimes I found myself in a situation where, even though I knew the word I wanted to say, I didn’t have the confidence to say it for fear of mispronouncing it- just imagine how many students may feel this way because we may not be doing enough drilling in the classroom.
What I really like about Fiona’s workshop is that she draws our attention to the fact that professional development is based not only on identifying our weaknesses but also strengths- we often forget that as teachers we learn from reflecting on our strengths and what went well in the classroom as much as we do from addressing weaknesses.
Hi Patricia,
I think it is only you. I’m very surprised you may find teachers’ responses boring- I believe there is a lot we can learn from each other. It would be very interesting though to know how you could answer the question of ‘What makes a good teacher?’. Please share so we can learn from you as well. thanks
Hi Kata,
Here are the links:
Rachel Roberts talk on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPmvLza5LEk&t=40s
Rachel Roberts: links to decoding skills https://elt-resourceful.com/decoding-skills-for-listening-a-collection-of-useful-links/Facebook group, Diploma Survivors:https://www.facebook.com/groups/DELTA.DipTESOL.Candidates.Survivors
ELLO:https:https://www.elllo.org/
ESOL Lab:https://www.esl-lab.com
Let me know if there is something I may have missed form the recording;=)
This is a really valid point, Michel…and also one that is often overlooked by EFL teachers. I doubt you will ever be contradicted on this point;=) Accent is a significant obstacle to understanding, both native speaker accent variations and L2 accents. Students not only need to make themselves understood but also be prepared to understand a huge variety of accents they will encounter in the real world outside the classroom (English as the Lingua Franca). Incorporating different accents into English teaching and learning is therefore crucial. Is there any particular way that you do it in your teaching?
hi Mary. thanks for your ideas- I particularly like number 6 and 7; we can’t teach what we don’t know;=) Including ALL students in the classroom is a sign of a very good teacher. Very often, the reality is that including ALL students in the classroom can only be achieved through the use of differentiation techniques-one of the most challenging aspects of teaching.
I remember you mentioning how neglected listening skills are in the classroom. I do hope this module helped you get a better understanding of the importance of teaching listening and how listening is immediately related to speaking. To help our students become effective communicators, we need to make an explicit connection between listening and speaking through integrating skills in our daily teaching practice.
This is probably because listening skills are often difficult to teach, in particular for new teachers. If you would like to find out more about why listening skills are often neglected in the classroom and how this could be changed, please watch ‘Teaching Listening- the Cinderella Skill’ Masterclass which you can find in the Gallery Teachers Masterclass library.
https://galleryteachers.com/course/teaching-listening-the-cinderella-skill/
Hi Anne,
Thank you for this feedback.
You are absolutely right that the examples to illustrate intonation in the quiz may not be clear-cut and , of course, ALL these examples might be said with the reverse intonation at the end ( the way you read each one of them). However, the quiz questions can only test course takers on the use of grammatical intonation (how the intonation changes depending on the grammar structure).As you have stated it yourself, it is impossible to give clear-cut examples of attitudinal intonation; we can only raise trainees’ awareness of this concept (we attempted just that in task 8B), it is impossible to test anybody on the use of attitudinal intonation simply because there are no apparent patterns.
This exactly is the problem when teaching intonation in the classroom- some people go as far as to say that intonation can not be taught as a language system.
As an initial tefl training qualification, this course aims to give newly qualified teachers the very basic understanding of what is involved in teaching intonation to language students, and how challenging this can be.
A few generally accepted patterns for intonation teaching purposes (typically found in published coursebooks) have been summarised in the trainer’s commentary section as a guidance, and ALL the quiz questions have been designed to reflect the very patterns we introduce in the lesson in order to ensure fairness of the questions.
I’ll try to justify this below by supporting each quiz question and indicated correct answer with the trainer’s commentary section from the actual lesson:
Q 5 ‘Yes, I do.’
Trainer’s commentary: Short answers are usually intonated down.
Yes, I can.↘ ‘Q6 Where did you find that?
Trainer’s commentary: When asking wh-questions (information questions), the intonation typically drops at the end of the question.
‘Where did you go? ↘Q7 Do you have it?
Trainer’s commentary: When asking Yes/No questions, the intonation typically rises.
‘Did you go out last night? ↗Q8 You know her, do you? (speaker is sure the answer is ‘yes’)
Q9 You know her, don’t you? (speaker is not sure what the answer is)
Trainer’s commentary: When using question tags, the intonation drops at the end of the question tag when we are chatting, but rises when we are checking information.
You went out last night, didn’t you? ↘ (chatting)
You went out last night, didn’t you? ↗ (checking)Thank you again for your feedback , Anne! This is really helpful- based on what you have said, we will change the questions slightly by adding a clarification that the questions have to be answered according to the rules of grammatical, not attitudinal intonation to avoid any confusion.