The first two chapters of the Anthology were helpful in an introduction to this course. It was informative and helpful to read that methods of teaching are somewhat outdated and seem to rigid, so the term approach has become more popular. It was encouraging to read that approaches are typically less prescriptive and not as static as a method of teaching. Sometimes, as a pre-service teacher, it can be intimidating and daunting to be furthering a group of students' education in terms of speaking English. It seems as if a lot more responsibility is placed on us than on other teachers, especially in terms of high stakes testing and other forms of standardized tests. To read that the best teachers assess students frequently and change what isn't working makes it sound less intimidating. It's always helpful to hear that even the best teachers have to change their curriculum, sometimes even in the middle of it, to meet the needs of the students.
Reading about the theories of teaching a language was also helpful. It was informative to read about the different types of theories and that mixing and matching them will create the best learning environment for students. The bullet points at the end of the chapter really summed up the theories and allowed me as a pre-service teacher to think about what I'll try to implement into my own classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment