Teaching an english class can be quite the challenge. Though
we knew our students were going to be adults over the age of 16, the fact that
we really knew nothing more, made it a little nerve wrecking to go into a class
partially blind. At the beginning of class, we only had 2 students show up.
After introducing ourselves to them, we realized that our whole lesson plan was
only going to take up about 10 minutes, since the students we got were far from
basic beginners. We improvised and brought in more intermediate elements into
the conversation, hoping this would be better suited for our students. However,
the real challenge came when we had another student and 2 library employees
come into the class. It quickly became clear that one of the employees and the
student who had arrived last, were at an extremely basic level of English.
Since we were already halfway into the class, we decided to break them up into
two small groups and have them practice between each other. We paired one of
the intermediate speakers with one who was at the basic level and joined them
in their conversation. The advantage of the one who was at the intermediate
level was quite evident, and though the beginning level student got more
comfortable towards the very end, his frustration with not finding the words to
express himself was clear when he turned to the more advanced student for help
translating.
Considering
this was the first class, after experiencing with a way to manage the different
levels we were working with, things went pretty well. We used different methods
of corrective feedback throughout the class, such as recast, elicitation and
repetition. Students seemed to pick up faster on their error when I used the
recast method. I also observed that besides the feedback that I would provide,
if I let the more advanced student help the one at the basic level, he seemed
to be a bit more comfortable holding a conversation even at the risk of making
errors. The avoidance phenomenon came into the conversation when he heard words
that were in no way similar to anything in Spanish. He would then look to the
other student, express himself in Spanish and have the other student translate
for him. After making these observations, I feel it would be best if next class
we paired the intermediate students together and the basic students together.
Once the students at the lower level get a little more comfortable holding a
conversation without having to resort to having someone translate for them, we
can once again pair an intermediate with a basic so that they can begin to rise
up to their level.
Do you think that recasting errors as opposed to explicitly correcting errors helped students feel more comfortable? Do you think that the use of realia,visuals, gestures, handouts, could help bridge the gap between student levels (facilitating the understanding of those with less English)? It seems like you managed the different levels very well. I imagine that you will be able to think of creative ways to take advantage of the different levels during your conversation hour.
ResponderEliminarThat is such an added challenge to have multiple levels within your class. In my language classes in the past, I usually paired students based on similar level because unequal matching usually results in more holding back the higher level than pushing the lower level to do more because they still lack the basic pieces to put together. Plus, as you mentioned, they feel less competent compared to their partner and will rely on their first language to express themselves.
EliminarIn my language classes back in the States, we have a very strict English-only rule with the idea that students will be forced to negotiate meaning with each other and with their teachers. It's difficult when your speakers have such a basic level but it would eliminate the translation and reliance on Spanish that you guys have experienced and that we did too in our basic class!
-Meghan