journal entry 2

What kind of method your way of teaching is based on?Give examples

According to Kumaradivelu's macrostategies and microstategies, can you identify which ones you normally use in your classroom? Give examples

Taking into consideration your educational context and your own expectations and goals which macrostrategies and microstrategies would you like to implement in your lessons?



English teachers, including me delvelop different methods in our way of teaching but we don't know sometimes what kind of method we are applying.

According to Kamaradivelu's article and in the syllabus we have in our High School we are applying a learner- centered mehod ( communicative method). We are trying to develop the four language skills during the year. One example could be the oral interviews I did to the students for giving personal information and other asking for specific information in a video ( listening comprehension).

Telling the truth I can say that depending on the topic, I apply a Language centered method, specially when I teach grammar structures and I use form-focused exercises until students internalize them.

Another topic has to be with the macrostrategies I am applying in the classroom. One macrostrategy I am using is to facilitate negotiated interaction and an example could be when the students had to work in groups of three for playing a role in a dialogue of three minutes, that was previously listened; besides that I gave them the script and practiced the pronunciation.

They could record their dialogue in a cd and show it to their partners in class. That was fun and I think students liked it. However some students told me that they didn't want to do the same dialogue and asked me for help to make a new script, with their own story, and expressions.

That was a really good idea and of course I did it. The students had the opportunity to learn and to lead their learning process based on their needs.

Another macrostrategy I have implemented in class is to integrate language skills. If we see the syllabus, in each period we emphasize an specific skill, so in the first period the emphasis was reading comprehension, in the second, listening, in the third speaking and in the fourth the emphasis is writing.

It doesn't mean that we don't implement the other skills in each period. An example is that in this fourth period (where the emphasis is writing), the students are making compositions (stories, tales,etc), and they have to read them in front of their partners and that means that they have to do their best.

I would like to implement the macrostrategy called promoting learners autonomy, because the students are not going to have an english teacher all the time, and there are many tools and strategies they can use to improve their english. That means that me as a teacher have to help them learn how to learn english (self- direct their own learning).

According to Kumaradivelu's article the''two main steps to promote learning autonomy are psychological preparation and strategic training.

That's a big challenge for me and I'll try to search and read about it, and I know this course I'm taking is going to be worthy.