Session 5: Teaching

Application

  The word “teaching” for me is associated with this sentence:" all knowledgeable teachers are not good teachers”. This belief has roots in my own personal experiences. I had teachers and professors who I knew had excellent academic backgrounds but their performances in the classrooms were fruitless. Not being aware of all theoretical studies in the field of teaching and learning I knew that there should be something more than just having a mere degree or good knowledge in one field.

  

   Teaching is a simple but challenging concept. And it would be

meaningless without considering some other related concepts like learning, students.

   According to Widdoson(1990) teaching is a self-conscious enterprise. And different schools of thought defined it differently. For instance, Behaviorists see teachers as sages by the stages, followers of humanistic approach regard them as guides by the side, etc, but what I found as new and interesting is this idea that sees teachers as reflective practitinares whose beliefs makes their"espoused" theories.

It should be mentioned that these beliefs are regarding teachers, themselves, regarding learners and about learning.

Assistance

As I mention in session 3, application, the professor’s creativity I class management is one of the most noticeable point in my this new experience in TEFL studies.

This week she came  and said "provide a paper and write everything that you got from the assigned books about teaching in an academic manner and we did so", though the time had been overed and I didn’t finish my own paper but it helped me to understand I should develop all my abilities in all sides from studying strategies to writing, from speaking to listening, from teaching to learning and even from thinking to behaving.

It was the greatest assistance in this session: Learn to change your habits to be able to teach others to change theirs, of course into better ones.

Application

   Studying different materials and gathering information ,we should ib the next and important step put these data into practice. So being aware of the role of beliefs in the selection of an especial method which could be appropriate or inappropriate more programms should be provided to change or improve teachers' beliefs and attributions.

 Read: Psychology for Language Teachers chapters 3& 4; Instructed second language Acquisition chapters 5&6 ; An Introduction to Foreign Language Teaching.pp 161-191; Teaching by Principles chapters 3&4; Aspects of Language Teaching pp. 117-180; Methodology in Language Teachingsection 1