Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults

Written Assignment 4

Lessons from the

Classroom

Rusiru Kalpagee Chitrasena

CELTA (Part-time) Trainee- The British Council, Colombo

15th June 2014

Scenario:
You have decided to apply for a Teacher of English post with a reputable language school.
The Director of Studies has asked you to complete a professional profile consisting of the
following five sections prior to the interview:
(a) Recent professional development
(b) Teaching strengths
(c) Developmental needs
(d) Learning from other teachers
(e) Action planning
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Contents:

A. Recent professional development

B. Teaching strengths

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C. Developmental needs

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D. Learning from other teachers

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E. Action planning

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Appendix A: Areas of Professional Development in CELTA

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A. Recent Professional Development:

I decided to take CELTA as part of my continuous professional development. In the first place, I was
absolutely convinced about its highly practical nature. At the same time, I was attracted by its
international reputation as a passport to an international career in English language teaching.

The input sessions of the course focuses on the essentials of teaching methodology1. The key
areas I have developed during the CELTA course include:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)

Understanding learners and their contexts

Language analysis
Teaching receptive and productive skills
Teaching grammar and vocabulary
Planning lessons resources
Classroom management
Developing teaching skills and professionalism

B. Teaching Strengths:
According to Scrivener (2005: 109) lesson planning increases [the] chances of a successful
lesson. My strength in lesson planning was admired by the tutors as well as by my colleagues
during the feedback sessions. For example, one of the tutors mentioned that my lesson plans are
clear and detailed in the Stage 2 Progress Record. Similar comments can be found in almost all
the teaching practice feedback forms I have received. I had never written such complete and
1 See Appendix A for a detailed description of the areas of professional
development covered in CELTA.
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detailed lesson plans before, and it was the CELTA lesson plan template and the input sessions
on planning that helped me to identify the key area to focus on, when planning a lesson.
The Stage 2 Progress Record states that my teaching materials are well adapted and designed,
and this was a teaching practice criterion for which I was often rated above standard. I firmly
believe in the importance of effective learning materials as well as in the role of the teachers as
material developers. It is vital to ensure that the learners have some useful practice and reference
materials to take home at the end of each lesson so that they have a clear record of what they
have learnt.
Another area of strength that I have developed during the course was analysing and presenting
language. The tutors have acknowledged the clarity of handling MPF2" in my language lessons
and my language analysis assignment was praised for being well-researched3. As a passionate
student of English and Linguistics, I was confident about my grammatical awareness, though I
often found it difficult to teach grammar because of my tendency to complicate it. The trainers
and my peers noticed this tendency during the early input sessions on language awareness and
warned me in advance about this problem. I feel that I have responded to their feedback
positively and the CELTA language analysis framework with the contextualization of the target
language and focus on meaning, pronunciation and form have helped me to analyse language
effectively for pedagogical purposes so that I can deliver clear and simple grammar lessons. I
have also learnt the importance of anticipating problems related to the target language in advance
so that I can help the learner avoid common problems they many encounter in a grammar lesson.

2 ( Richard, TP 2)
3 (Assignment 2 Feedback, Richard)
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Rather than providing lengthy teacher centred explanations, I now use eliciting, timelines,
concept-checking questions, and guided discovery to teach grammar. For these reasons, I see an
improvement in my style of presenting grammar.
After completing eight weeks of the course, I feel that I have assimilated most of the classroom
teaching strategies/ techniques covered in CELTA. These include the use of warmers and lead-in
tasks to energize and set context, giving clear instructions with demonstrations and instructionchecking questions, nominating, monitoring, the importance of peer-feedback before open
feedback, the importance of eliciting as opposed to explaining, and so on. As acknowledged in
the Stage 2 Progress Record, I have managed to make my lessons energetic and motivating.
C. Developmental Needs:
In a number of teaching practice sessions, I had an issue with time management. Although, I had
appropriately allocated time for each stage in the lesson plan, there were problems with time
management when I actually taught the lesson. In TP 2, I had too much time and should have
planned an extra activity, while in TP 4, I had little time left to cover the secondary aim
because I spent more time than I had expected on setting context. At the same time, I also need to
ensure that an appropriate learning pace is maintained so that the learners have enough time to
complete the activities. In TP 6, I was told that the pace of [the ] lesson was good. However, I
still strongly feel that I should work on timing to avoid rushing through the lessons. It is
important to teach the learners , not the plan (Scrivener, 2005: 109).
In addition, I felt that I need to be more sensitive to learner errors made during freer practice
activities for the purpose of delayed error correction. In Stage 01 Progress Record, the tutor
suggested that I should focus on learner errors for giving some delayed feedback after free
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practice activities, but I could not provide delayed feedback on errors during some of the TP
sessions. In TP 6, for example, I was told that I had a missed opportunity to do some delayed
error correction. Although the role of error correction is sometimes theoretically undermined
as being not of direct benefit to language acquisition (Krashen, 1982), it still plays a significant
role in practice because most learners want and expect us to give them feedback on their
performance (Harmer, 2001:104). As highlighted by Ellis (1982), the teacher should not
interrupt the flow of communication during freer/fluency practice activities and the best time to
intervene in learner talk is; as late as possible (Lynch 1997: 324). Therefore, I intend to continue
developing my ability to provide delayed feedback.
In addition, I also feel that I need to consider enhancing the learner-centeredness of my teaching.
Based on tutor feedback, I have tried to resist high TTT by avoiding the repetition of
instructions, complicated instructions, running commentary, and echoing learner answers. I feel
that I need to play a less interventionist role to maximize learner involvement and leave time
for genuine learner communication. This will help the learners to be more autonomous. I should
only intervene to help/ guide during practice tasks when the learners seriously need it. In
Scriveners words, there are times in class when the teachers absence may be more valuable
than his or her presence (Scrivener, 2012: 176).
D. Learning from other teachers:
During the course, I gained a lot of valuable insight into the CELTA content areas by watching
experienced teachers and peers teach. These observations have helped me to understand theory in
practice, as well as some key differences between theory and practice.

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In the fifth week, I observed a genuinely learner-centred lesson where the teacher became a mere
observer during a vocabulary revision game, handing over the complete control of the game to
the learners. That teacher helped me understand the extent to which learning can be learnercentred. Though, I have been open to the idea of learner-centeredness, I have often been
reluctant to lose my control over the process of learning because I feared that it might lead to
chaos. However, I am now willing to change my view in this regard.
I particularly liked how one of the trainees used the OHP for delayed error correction after a
speaking activity. When the learners were speaking, she took down some errors on a
transparency and projected them on the board. Then, she underlined the errors and asked the
learners to correct them. I liked her strategy because it saves time and enhances the clarity of
feedback. I intend to experiment with this strategy in future when I give delayed feedback on
writing and speaking.

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E. Action Planning:
Key Area:

Managing time and

Action Points

pace effectively

Delayed feedback/

Impact on teaching

Get to the lesson as quickly as

possible without spending a lot of
time on lead-in/warm-up tasks.

State the time limit for each task.

Always plan error correction in

of the lesson.

Listen to the learners with full

Stating the time limit will prevent the learners from taking more time than necessary to
complete a task because they are given an idea about the allocated time in advance.

advance.

error correction

Spending less time on leading/warm-up tasks will save time for more important aspects

When error correction is planned in advance and included in the lesson plan, it is highly
unlikely to forget it during the lesson.

Being more analytical about learner language while listening to the learners will help the
teacher detect errors that need to be corrected.

attention, focusing on the quality

of language they use.

Using a transparency to take down learner errors will save the extra time spent on copying
errors to the board from a notebook.

Wherever possible and

appropriate, use a transparency
to take down the errors and
display them using the OHP.

Correcting errors in the classroom is not always a pleasurable experience. Turning it into a
game will make it challenging and entertaining.

Turn error-correction into a

game. (e.g. Grammar Auction)

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Enhancing the

Resist high TTT.

language in the classroom. This makes the learning process more learner-centred.

learner-centeredness
of the learning

Less TTT will naturally enhance the opportunities available to the learners to use the target

Give the learners more

opportunities to take decisions

process

to the learning process, it will enhance their confidence as learners 4. This is a key element of

about the learning process.

When the learners feel that they have more power and autonomy to make decisions related
learner-centred education.

Refrain from intervening to help,

when the learner can manage

the tasks on their own.

Sometimes, the absence of the teacher will be more valuable than his/her presence because
it will give the learners a chance to complete a task on their own, thereby enhancing learner
autonomy (Scrivener, 2012:178).

Include freer practice/ production

activities.

Unlike controlled practice activities where the teacher has a more authoritative role, freer
practice/production activities are more learner centred because they engage the learners
more actively in life-like tasks.

4 The learners are more likely to enjoy the subject, and to succeed at it, if they are involved in the learning process
and, as far as possible, have a chance to influence what happens, and how it happens (Lewis and Hill, 1992: 9).
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Word Count: 1367

References:
Primary Sources:
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CELTA 5 Record Book

Teaching Practice Feedback Forms
Observation sheets
Feedback from peers

Secondary Sources:
Ellis, R. (1982). Informal and formal approaches to communicative language teaching. ELT
Journal. 36 (2), pp.73-81.
Harmer, J. (2001).The Practice of English Language Teaching. 3rd. ed. Essex: Pearson Longman.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition.1st.ed. Oxford:
Pergamon.
Lynch, T. (1997). Nudge, nudge teacher interventions in task-based learner talk. ELT Journal. 51
(4), pp.317-325.
Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning Teaching. 2nd .ed. Oxford: Macmillan Education

Scrivener, J. (2012). Classroom Management Techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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