REFLECTIVE SUMMARY

FINAL REFLECTIVE SUMMARY

I have learned a lot about myself as a trainee teacher, from getting experience in teaching at Wedamulla Maha Vidyalaya. This was my first teaching experience at a school and it was great and challenging. I was assigned classes from grade five, eight and nine to conduct the teaching sessions. I learned that it was challenging to apply the theories of language acquisition into practice in a real classroom.

During the first week of my student teaching experience, I had a discussion with the teacher in charge to get an idea about my teaching preparation. I prepared the lesson material according to the learner profile. The activities were made in a way that the students could participate actively in the classroom where they would create their own ideas in their own way of knowledge. During my teaching sessions, I learned that the students lack knowledge in vocabulary. I realized that the students of grade five and eight are keen to engage in collaborative tasks. Therefore, interactive activities should be prepared according to the leaner profile in order to increase their vocabulary knowledge. The behaviorist theory shows that language can be acquired through imitation and repetition. Hence, I used the imitation and repetition methods of teaching in order to improve the student’s vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, I used Total Physical Response (TPR) to teach vocabulary related to action words.  

It was a challenging experience for me as a trainee teacher to teach the 5^th grade students concentrating on their proficiency level. I always checked understanding and gave feedback when necessary. Although the student’s proficiency level was low, they performed well in collaborative tasks and they knew the correct usage of common expressions used inside and outside the classroom. 

Furthermore, during my teaching sessions, I learned that most of the students had difficulty in pronunciation, capitalization of words and identifying certain words. However, they were interested in learning English language. Another important aspect that I observed during the second week of my teaching experience is that competition and teamwork motivate students and it is important to give quick and specific feedback in order to complete a task successfully. However, I realized that the students were of different levels and that it is important to arrange the lessons according to students’ progress. Therefore, I should be an active observer to adopt the syllabus in order to prepare the lesson material focusing on the proficiency level of each student.

In each class, I could notice that some students were of low proficiency level. In order to follow my lesson plan and to complete the activities, I conducted group activities for 5^th and 8^th grade students. Applying Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory, the students could learn a skill with the help of a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) in their group. This helped me to maintain a good rapport in the classroom with students as well.

Although, the young learners had a positive attitude towards collaborative tasks in the classroom, the students from grade nine class did not show any interest towards group work or interactive activities. It was difficult and challenging for me to build up a good rapport with the grade nine students within a short period. As a trainee teacher, I prefer to have a student-centered classroom where the students are allowed to express their own ideas that helps to improve their creativity. Yet, it was difficult for me to complete the tasks that I designed for grade nine students since the learners preferred a traditional classroom that is teacher centered. Thus, the most challenging experience for me during the entire teaching experience was using effective strategies to teach grade nine students. As a result, I designed my lesson plans in a way that the learners would enjoy including pair work and individual tasks and used more explanations. They needed more explanation regarding the topic because most of the students in the class lacked familiarity in vocabulary and knowledge in constructing grammatically correct sentences. Adopting the situational Language Teaching approach, steps were followed to complete different tasks in order to encourage the students to use their target language on their own according to the situation. Hence, the activities focused on vocabulary, reading and grammar.

I suggest that students should participate in active events where they would create their own ideas in their own way of knowledge so that the teachers would understand the students and act accordingly. For example, follow reading lessons, teamwork, creative writing and have a session of English speech with the ideas of their own way and mind. Gaining this experience for six weeks, I realized teaching is a task but it brings me a great honor in my future to be successful in this task being a teacher.