This is the reflection of the lesson that was implemented at the English Language Institute (ELI) on the campus of California State University, Sacramento regarding reported speech. The program at ELI consists of 8 levels in each of the language tasks of Listening and Speaking; Reading and Vocabulary; and Grammar and Composition, with varying electives for students to choose from for additional practice in the language, such as a board game class in English. All classes are held four days a week, Monday through Thursday. The class that I taught is a level 5 Grammar class, so these are approximately high-intermediate level students, most of whom have been in the program at least two terms or more. One student in the class is new to the program, and like all other students in the class, began the program with a placement test implemented by ELI. The host teacher began the lesson at the beginning of the week on Noun Clauses, so that they would be prepared for quoted and reported speech by Wednesday.
My guiding teacher and I decided that I would be teaching the week prior to my class time. We arranged for me to teach the content in the chapter using some exercises, but implementing some pair/ group work that I would design. She was very supportive of the idea of pair/ group work, though it is not something they typically use in grammar classes. She has since decided to continue the use of the article I used in the lesson for a later lesson with this same class, so it built well on her plans for the course. I wanted the students to be comfortable with me, so knowing most of them were familiar with the teaching style of my host teacher, I decided to begin the lesson in the manner in which she would teach it, supporting what they had studied previously and drawing on their knowledge. She typically enforces a top-down approach by asking questions of the students to gauge their knowledge of the content. I began my lesson in the same way by asking to students to share their knowledge on quoted and reported speech. I felt that in this way, I would gain their trust as a class and prepare them for a new activity in group work with which they were less familiar. I feel this was one of the strengths in my lesson because the students did respond well to the beginning which I think built the necessary rapport for the latter part of the lesson when I implemented the group work. My guiding teacher was very pleased with the group work aspect of my lesson. However, because the teaching style that I wanted to implement in the beginning was not natural to me, I feel I did not prepare as well for this portion of the lesson as I should have. My transitions were awkward and I was not thorough in my explanation of quoted speech in a way that ensured understanding across all of the students. For example, when I asked students when we use quoted speech and what it is used for, in reality I was more focused on an answer that would explain the purpose for quoted speech (for writing), and did not expand on an explanation of when and what quoted speech actually is.
Overall, I was extremely pleased with the outcome of this lesson. In the end, the students were using reported speech and employing critical thinking in their discussions using reported speech. I was able to engage with them as I moved around the room listening to their partner discussions. Once the partners were finished, I had some students share their answers with the class by reporting what their partner thought of the topic. All students successfully used natural reported speech when reporting their partner’s opinions. I was very pleased with the outcome, because the partner activity was the part that employed the theory of Communicative Language Teaching around which I built my lesson. The students were able to authentically communicate, using these grammar rules, instead of becoming too preoccupied with right or wrong form. The result was natural and interesting discussion and ultimately, proper use of the language objectives.
Finally, I was disappointed with my time management of certain activities in the beginning. While volunteers wrote their answers on the board, the rest of the class sat disengaged and quiet. It was a poor use of the time, and ended up taking much longer than I anticipated. After a discussion with my guiding teacher regarding this predicament, she gave an excellent suggestion to use more of the board so that a few students could write their sentences at once. In order to engage the students that are not writing, I could have asked them write a quote that reflects a piece of advice their parents gave to them as a child, or something of that nature. When the volunteers finished on the board, and the exercise was corrected, we could have students share their parents’ quotes as a fun way to culminate the quoted speech portion of the lesson and keep all students engaged.
My guiding teacher and I decided that I would be teaching the week prior to my class time. We arranged for me to teach the content in the chapter using some exercises, but implementing some pair/ group work that I would design. She was very supportive of the idea of pair/ group work, though it is not something they typically use in grammar classes. She has since decided to continue the use of the article I used in the lesson for a later lesson with this same class, so it built well on her plans for the course. I wanted the students to be comfortable with me, so knowing most of them were familiar with the teaching style of my host teacher, I decided to begin the lesson in the manner in which she would teach it, supporting what they had studied previously and drawing on their knowledge. She typically enforces a top-down approach by asking questions of the students to gauge their knowledge of the content. I began my lesson in the same way by asking to students to share their knowledge on quoted and reported speech. I felt that in this way, I would gain their trust as a class and prepare them for a new activity in group work with which they were less familiar. I feel this was one of the strengths in my lesson because the students did respond well to the beginning which I think built the necessary rapport for the latter part of the lesson when I implemented the group work. My guiding teacher was very pleased with the group work aspect of my lesson. However, because the teaching style that I wanted to implement in the beginning was not natural to me, I feel I did not prepare as well for this portion of the lesson as I should have. My transitions were awkward and I was not thorough in my explanation of quoted speech in a way that ensured understanding across all of the students. For example, when I asked students when we use quoted speech and what it is used for, in reality I was more focused on an answer that would explain the purpose for quoted speech (for writing), and did not expand on an explanation of when and what quoted speech actually is.
Overall, I was extremely pleased with the outcome of this lesson. In the end, the students were using reported speech and employing critical thinking in their discussions using reported speech. I was able to engage with them as I moved around the room listening to their partner discussions. Once the partners were finished, I had some students share their answers with the class by reporting what their partner thought of the topic. All students successfully used natural reported speech when reporting their partner’s opinions. I was very pleased with the outcome, because the partner activity was the part that employed the theory of Communicative Language Teaching around which I built my lesson. The students were able to authentically communicate, using these grammar rules, instead of becoming too preoccupied with right or wrong form. The result was natural and interesting discussion and ultimately, proper use of the language objectives.
Finally, I was disappointed with my time management of certain activities in the beginning. While volunteers wrote their answers on the board, the rest of the class sat disengaged and quiet. It was a poor use of the time, and ended up taking much longer than I anticipated. After a discussion with my guiding teacher regarding this predicament, she gave an excellent suggestion to use more of the board so that a few students could write their sentences at once. In order to engage the students that are not writing, I could have asked them write a quote that reflects a piece of advice their parents gave to them as a child, or something of that nature. When the volunteers finished on the board, and the exercise was corrected, we could have students share their parents’ quotes as a fun way to culminate the quoted speech portion of the lesson and keep all students engaged.