Vladyslav Nikiforov - WA4 - v2 - RESUB

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 4: LESSONS FROM THE CLASSROOM
1st Submission 2nd Submission

Full name:_______________________________
Date:___________________________________ S NS S NS
By signing this, I certify that this assignment is my own

work, and that I have acknowledged ALL material and
sources used in its preparation.
Noting own teaching strengths and weaknesses in different Partially
situations in light of feedback from learners, teachers and
teacher educators
Identifying which ELT areas of knowledge and skills need Yes

further development
Describing development of ELT knowledge and skills Yes

beyond the course in a specific way
Using written language that is clear, accurate and Yes

appropriate to the task
Word count of 750-1000 Yes
Overall comment
Well done for mostly identifying strengths and areas to work on and for outlining a concrete plan for future
development. You are very nearly there but you do have a small resub on just one part of the assignment
(see the highlighted yellow box below).
Please make this small change by Saturday morning.
Overall grade Pass Resubmit Pass on Fail

Resub-
Tutor(s) signature(s) and date mission
Sarah Smith 15/12/2022
INSTRUCTIONS
Part A
STRENGTH 1
Establishing good rapport with the students.

Throughout the course, both of my tutors have been describing my rapport with the students
as ‘great’. I think the course also helped me teaching the class with an awareness of the
needs and interests of the learners, which strengthens the rapport even further, and makes
the atmosphere during the lessons is friendly. I always try to notice what the students are
saying and react accordingly. Remembering the personal details helps to show students that
I care about them as individuals, which really helps with maintaining rapport. This also
ensures that the learners are interested and engaged during the lessons and look forward to
the next ones. Learners usually thank me for the lesson, and after the final lesson with the
first group, they wished me all the best and the success in my teaching career, and it felt
very warm.
STRENGTH 2
Phonology, pronunciation.
The CELTA course gave an amazing theoretical base and practice for MFP stage and its
procedure. I think every teacher has some version of it during their lessons, mine was very
intuitive. The course gives a clear and well-structured procedure, my tutor identified my
pronunciation as good, and the knowledge on MFP helps me utilize this strength much better
now. Throughout the teaching practices I helped the learners improve their pronunciation,
and the new knowledge (choral/individual drilling, backchaining) showed great results. In
controlled and freer practices student produced the language with much more accurate
pronunciation.
Part B
AREA TO WORK ON 1
Maintaining an appropriate learning pace.

My main action point from the start was the teacher talking time. My tutor consistently noted
it as an action point, and one of my groupmates told me “during the first TP you were talking
and talking and talking, I was asking myself “when will he stop?”” It had been excessive, but
the situation improved towards the middle of the course. Improving TTT helped with the
timing and making lessons more student-centered, but I’ve been struggling to include all of
my stages nonetheless. In the demo lesson my tutor Julie conducted a 90-minute reading
and vocabulary lesson, and the timing on it was kept perfectly. There was enough time for
controlled and freer practice, delayed error correction and even reflection at the end.
Teaching practices show that planning the lessons carefully and scripting and rehearsing the
procedure helps tremendously, so to improve my pace and timing I will do that, as well as
use a timer and make mental notes of my excessive talk and try to reduce it. I will also try
recording myself and playing the parts of the lesson back. This will help me reflect and
notice excessive TTT.
AREA TO WORK ON 2
Language analysis
Another thing that had been a problem for me is language analysis. Specifically, it is hard for
me to put myself in students’ shoes and come up with the problems and things they might
find difficult. In teaching practice 5 I had a vocabulary lesson, and the target language was
movie genres. Because I thought the names of the genres are self explanatory, I didn’t really
analyse target language in appropriate depth and didn’t anticipate realistic problems with
meaning. My students didn’t fully understand the difference between romcom and love story,
so I had to invent the explanation and CCQs on the go, which ruined the structure and timing
a little. To improve, I will be referring to Workman’s Concept Questions and Timelines as
well as put more effect into analysing TL in depth before lesson and coming up with
appropriate CCQs.
.
Part C
IDEA FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT #1
Apart from the action points mentioned above and the ones my tutors pointed out I would
really like to work on discovering the world of phonology more. I’ve always been interested
in imitating different accents and polishing my pronunciation in general, but I don’t have a lot
of theoretical knowledge on phonology. To get better at this area I will study Baker’s “Ship or
Sheep” book, Underhill’s “Sound Foundations: Learning and Teaching Pronunciation” as well
watch Underhill’s series of educational videos on Macmillan Education ELT YouTube
channel. I also want to establish a routine for practicing various accents. For that I will find
the speakers whose pronunciation of particular accents I like and shadow them. All of that
will help me to make better first impression on my potential students as well as teach
phonology and pronunciation more confidently.
Teaching YLs. A significant part of my students are young learners, and I enjoy working
them a lot. I find my teaching process effective, but at the same time understand how
nuanced teaching kids is. I want to focus on discovering the theoretical and practical base
for teaching students aged 8-12. Teaching skills and techniques strongly intersect with
understanding the children’s psychology when teaching the YLs, so I want to pick up on all
of those points. To get better at this area I will start by taking a TKT young learners course
(or similar) and study Cameron’s “Teaching Languages to Young Learners” and Moon and
Underhill’s “Children Learning English”.
Teaching Exams. I find this field of teaching very curious. On the one hand – it might be
stressful due to a more tangible responsibility, on the other – once you get comfortable with
a particular exam and teach it a couple of times – you have a repeatable procedure and, as
you build experience and confidence further – it becomes a very predictable, comfortable
and effective process. To develop in this direction, I am enrolling in course (teaching IELTS)
and taking on 2 groups after I complete it. I also want to study Bergess and Head’s “How to
teach for exams”. Finally, I want to prepare and take all of the major English proficiency
exams to get a first-hand experience and make my advice to students more credible.
Word count: 985

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WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 4: LESSONS FROM THE CLASSROOM

1st Submission 2nd Submission

By signing this, I certify that this assignment is my own

Identifying which ELT areas of knowledge and skills need Yes

Describing development of ELT knowledge and skills Yes

Using written language that is clear, accurate and Yes

Word count of 750-1000 Yes

Please make this small change by Saturday morning.

Overall grade Pass Resubmit Pass on Fail

Establishing good rapport with the students.

Maintaining an appropriate learning pace.

IDEA FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT #1

IDEA FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT #2

IDEA FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT #3

Word count: 985

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