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.

  

Session 4: Factors Affecting Language Learning

Preparation




   To talk about leaning and those factors which affect it, we can remember our own struggle with it. Remembering all the years we have been studying, from very beginning in the kindergarten to the most recent level, here, for M.A. studies, the destination that we have been looking for is LEARNING, more and more.

Session 3: Language

Preparation


   At very first look to the topic of this session, language, I guessed all the assigned readings should be about the definition of language from different perspectives. But as I read the books I found that the center of our discussion would be about grammar, its importance and role in language learning and appropriate ways of teaching it.

   Grammar, it is that boring part of the three languages that I had to learn in the school; Persian, Arabic, and English. I used to prefer reading and vocabulary learning in all the three languages and from among them Persian grammar was more tolerable because I could compensate for those explicit rules like( s + obj + v) that I always mixed them up, by my own internalized mother tongue. But, about English and especially Arabic the condition was worse. Though I had successful performance on the exams but this success was due to my memorization power. I knew that I couldn’t use them in a communication condition.

   So grammar always stressed me out and I wished one day I could learn grammar just like my mother tongue, every time I forgot or mixed the rules up the language itself helped me to compensate.
Fortunately, after testing different strategies, trial and errors, I reached this dream. I learned grammar by reading English texts as much as I could and internalized the correct form of English grammar and just referred to grammar books for learning details.

   Hopefully, studying Widdowson gave me good insights of what I had experienced and useful debate regarding grammar and its functions.

Session 2: Learning & Learning Process

Preparation




   Every time I hear the word “learning”, the first things that cross my mind is my own memories regarding learning and strategies that I used to try to innovate by myself in order to learn. I remember those teachers in my elementary school who advised us not to memorize the materials but learn them. They never explained these two terms and just insist on learning. I remember, initially I thought that they are same but after this insistence I tried to interpret them to discover thatI was either learning or memorizing.


   During all my academic years in schools and then university, learning, and all its related issues were long-standing concepts that I thought about them every time I started studying. My mind was always on how children acquire their mother tongue successfully and it was so interesting when for the first time I found such kinds of discussion in the teaching methodology course in the last term of my undergraduate studies.

Session 1: Introduction

Preparation




  To be a good and effective teacher my first priority is to have a correct definition of some basic criteria; what is teaching? Who can be a teacher? What should I do as a teacher? What are my responsibilities? What is my aim of teaching? Who am I teaching to? What are their aims of being taught? What should I teach? Is there any difference among teaching different subjects? And so forth.

  The answers to the above questions can give me a correct view of teaching. The very fact is that there are lots of teachers all around the world who never care about these Q&A s. they just go straight forward to the classroom and start what they call teaching. And the outcome of their actions is as clear as a day! Now I can understand more clearly why I’m living in a developing country which is still developing but in a direction of nowhere! So the responsibilities are more than what I can imagine. Then I should start.