2. 4. FACILITATION
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Art of making learning easy for students
Letting go of control in the classroom
A good facilitator recognizes that students are their own best
teachers and the primary role of teacher is to make easy or
facilitate the learning of students
A major role of the instructor is to arrange matters so the material
presented gets used and thereby learned.
We need, therefore, to give some consideration to such matters as
the
overall organization of the classroom,
the nature and dynamics of teacher-student, and Student-student
interaction,
the interface between these matters and the
selection of classroom learning tasks.
3. 4.1 Class Organization
The key participants in classroom organization are the
teacher, the teacher aide or trainee, the individual student
and groupings of students, the class as a whole, the
language presentation materials used (e.g., textbook, AV
media), and any visitors or outsiders. Combinations of
these result in particular structures in class organization
and effects on language learning processes.
The dominant view of second language classroom
processes today favors student-centered learning instead
of the traditional teacher-dominated classroom (Nunan
1988b).
4. The teacher-dominated classroom ("teacher fronted")
is characterized by the teacher speaking most of the
time, leading activities, and constantly passing
judgment on student performance
student-centered classroom, students typically will be
observed working individually or in pairs and small
groups, each on distinct tasks and projects
Learner-centered instruction has the benefits of
greater individualization of learning objectives,
increased student opportunities to perform using the
target language (whether receptively or
productively), and increased personal sense of
relevance and achievement, thus relieving the teacher
of the need to constantly supervise all students.
5. In general, the most appropriate and effective
classroom organization is pair and group work.
Group work has been shown to result in many
advantages for SL learners
1. learners speak more frequently and with longer
stretches of speech;
2. they produce more interactional modifications
directed at one another .
3. they utilize a wider range of language.
An especially important effect related to cultural
differences is that the observable shyness to speak in
larger classes tend to disappear in small group work.
6. 4.2 Aspects of the Teacher-Fronted Class
Two general characteristics of teacher-student interaction:
1. Question Types
SL teachers ask more display questions (those to which the
questioner already knows the answer) than do ordinary NSs
talking to NNSs. The latter usually use referential questions (those
to which the questioner does not already know the answer) .
Display Questions
questions you ask to see if the person you are speaking to
know the answer.
normally means questions teachers ask learners to see if they
understand or remember something.
7. Referential Questions – questions you ask someone because you don’t
know the answer. This can mean questions that teachers ask learners
and learners ask each other.
CLOSED REFERENTIAL QUESTIONS - the speaker does not know
the answer, but to which there is either only one or a very limited set
of possible answers. Answerable by “yes or no” and often short
phrases.
OPEN REFERENTIAL QUESTIONS - are questions to which the
speaker does not know the answer and to which a large variety of
answers are possible. (what, why, how, describe)
Long (l984) found that open referential questions
produced more complex student responses than did
closed referential questions, with complexity measured
by number of words per student turn.
8. 2. Wait - Time
Wait-time refers to the length of the pause which
follows a teacher's question to an individual student or to
the whole class. This lasts until either a student answers or
the teacher adds a comment or poses another question. It
can also apply to the period between one student's answer
to a question and the response of the teacher or another
student.
The time that you wait before calling a student in class.
When wait-time is increased to three to five
seconds, there is improvement in learning and in the
quality of classroom discourse.
9. 5. CORRECTION
AND FEEDBACK
Correction requires that:
Teacher recognizes what kind of error the
learner made
Is able to provide an accurate and detailed
linguistic analysis of the error
Is able to explain why this is wrong
Is able to provide a correct replacement for the
error
10. There are four types of correction
GROUP CORRECTION – with group activities, students notes
mistakes for a feedback session later. It provides opportunity to
learners notice language without the interruption by teacher but
unfortunately this also means that errors (unfamiliar language, or
language above class’ level of ability) will remain uncorrected.
SELF – CORRECTION – students should correct their English
more frequently. Students may correct themselves in the middle of
a conversation.
STUDENT - TO - STUDENT CORRECTION – similar from
group correction . The only difference is that the students works in
pairs.
TEACHER – TO - STUDENT CORRECTION – in early stages of
the lesson when students first practice the target language they
haven’t been familiar with the material so they can’t judge what’s
right and wrong. They need a direct feedback from you.
11. All students require feedback, whether during the class, at the end of
the lesson, or outside the classroom. Although correction appears similar
to feedback, correction focuses on specific mistakes or errors. Feedback
instead looks at weaknesses and strengths overall.
The teacher has many options available, from simply indicating
lack of comprehension or otherwise signaling the occurrence of an
error and getting the learner to self-correct, to the most elaborate
grammatical explanation and drill of correct forms.
Recast - is a form of feedback where the
teacher says something with the purpose of
helping a student notice his or her mistakes
and repair it on his or her own.
12. 6. CONCLUSION
It is obvious that teachers still encounter many
areas of ignorance where preferably there should be
knowledge. Teachers should know what relatively
firm information does exist, and where there is
room for study. This should help their decision
making. As the SL profession develops, more
teachers are qualified to conduct their own research
or to work together with researchers. This will help
in informing people through the teacher's combined
use of knowledge and educated professional
reflection.