Pedagogy

The importance of quality pedagogy hits me like a slap in the face. On the board the same word is written two different ways, one with a tonal mark above an 'a' and the other with a tonal mark written between an 'a' and 'i.' I raise my hand and ask for clarification for the location of the tonal mark. She responds with sometimes it's written over the 'a' and sometimes it's written over the 'i.' It's based on aesthetics, there does not appear to be a systematic method for deciding where the mark goes. In Khmer, I know when the vowel and consonant clusters change their shape, there's a system to it. Meanwhile, in Vietnamese, I assume what the teacher says is true. Frustration and confusion begins, then another thing happens. The professor writes the same word three times and on two of the three, the tonal mark looks like a dash, '-.' However, the importance of making a slanting down and a slanting up tone mark is imperative for understanding. Especially for beginning students. The professor constantly writes a tonal mark like a dash '-' when it is supposed to be a slanting down mark. This class reminds me of how lucky I am to have learned under great professors who explain rules and exceptions any time they occur and who make their writing very clear.

Business English. The solo lesson begins and the writing is messy on the board, about half of the writing is legible. The practicing teacher begins, speaking to the board for about a minute or two, then finally turns to the students. Though keep in mind, the teacher was not writing anything on the board, just looking at it and speaking about sub-prime mortgages. Then the teacher moves to a survey to hand out, the teacher can't find his handout. During his search, I look at the professor to see if she is going to cut him off, give him a warning, tell him to move on, I look at other students to see if they have the same wandering thoughts. Only one other student expresses a mutual concern. After five full minutes of searching in complete silence, the survey is found and distributed. By now it has been about 10 minutes of the 15 minute lesson it's supposed to be and we've only gone through the Engage section, or the warm up. Now, the lecture begins, numerous references to the 'media' ascend as though the media is the number one reliable source of information. I flashback to Berkeley, listening to lecturers' discourses infused with graduate school jargon, saying a lot, but really saying little. My brain clicks off, tunes out, waiting for the teacher to step in and stop this horrendous lecture based off of the media. It continues and continues. The jackhammer proceeds to pound rock by rock, the sound of the crushing metal upon the hard soil grows louder and more obnoxious. Until it's been 45 minutes of being talked at, the professor finally says, "I'm sorry but we really need to move on due to time constraints. I know you could go on much longer, and it was very interesting." It's time for feedback from us fellow students. The lady next to me says he could base an entire semester about the subject. She laughs slightly, I laugh roaringly and I get a concerned look from her. (She's serious?!) My mind is blown away, the other students truly enjoyed his lecture, they wanted him to continue. Baffled, perplexed, and aghast at how these other 11 students, including the professor genuinely thought it was a quality lesson for ESL students. Maybe I was missing the point, they thought they were the audience, despite this being laid out for us to act as ESL students. The practicing teacher asked maybe 2-3 questions, misspelled words, asked if he spelled something correct, wrote illegibly and they wanted more.

A teacher must be able to convey meaning with extreme clarity and should hopefully be able to write with close attention to detail. A teacher should also encourage participation by the students as much as they can, especially with it being a language course. These past few days have greatly influenced how I will continue to create my lessons, ones filled with participation, clear writing, and helpful explanations. I completed my first lesson this weekend for Kindergartners, I taught the words: run, jump, walk, and stop. The students were taught pronunciation for each word by each consonant and vowel, physically did the actions while saying the word. Were put into two groups to test their ability to carry out the action and say the word. A dog doll was used to make the actions and have the students call out the words. The words were written on the board, clear, large, and color coded. There were laughs, smiles, and a lot of praise. I get my evaluation next weekend, we'll see how good or bad I did. The one thing I know that went wrong is I was short a minute or two on the 15 minutes. This is what I've learned in my short time as a TEFL student and as an overall student, be clear with writing and meaning, maximize participation by students, and students feed off of high energy.