A little bit more reality in TEFL theory
Continuing my occasional series (as occasional as reality coming into TEFL theory):
“…it is relatively rare for language teachers to negotiate overall learning goals with their classes at the beginning of courses in an open, direct manner. However… it is commonplace for language teachers to adjust their lesson goals in accordance with student needs in a subtle, ongoing way.”
The Experience of Language Teaching pg 164
Thank the Lord (and Lady Rose M Senior of TEFL) for this book, which is turning out to be more readable than the “popular” linguistics book “Lost for Words” by John Humphreys.
The question that a whole book of TEFL reality checks has posed to me more than any other is, why does the DELTA take none of this reality of what good teachers do into account? Understood with the CELTA as it’s all about basics, but if most experienced teachers don’t stick to lesson plans and rely on instinct, how is one supposed to put that on a Diploma lesson plan?? And looking at it another way, what is the chance of them saying “Yes, your impeccably planned lesson to produce self motivated learners was fine in theory, but if you were a really experienced teacher you just would’ve been slipping that in as the best times came up”?
Tags: Quotes
November 6th, 2008 at 4:41 am
So true! I often find that my lesson plans rarely get followed in class, and I don’t think it’s because I did a poor job. In most cases, the class unexpectedly sparks on something – and boom – off we go on a theme, idea, or using a certain grammar point. Just this morning I was trying my best to follow a rather loose lesson plan with a IELTS prep class. Student was trying to write out a short essay (the plan.)
Reality: we uncovered a grammar weakness in with present perfect – and the rest of the class, and likely the one to come, will be given over to figuring it out and using it.
My plan vanished in seconds. But was it any less valuable of a class for my student? I don’t think so. But more importantly: I think – due to the sudden discovery and “pain” of not being able to express himself properly with the missing grammar we were working on – the learning will be more of a hard wired thing that sorta becomes a part of his skills. It won’t be something that we run over in class and later forget.
November 7th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
When I did the Trinity Diploma at Oxford House here in Barcelona, the trainers acknowledged that a lesson plan is in reality closer to a proposal than plan. As long as you could justify your departure from the LP (bearing in mind the lesson’s timetable fit), it didn’t adversely affect your assessment. That said, abandoning the lesson completely wasn’t an option!
As a teacher, I rarely now plan a lesson on paper; only as a teacher trainer on Certificate courses do I produce LPs. But even during demonstration lessons, I feel free to adapt to the situation at hand, and encourage the trainees to do likewise. I think it’s important for them to learn to think about their teaching ‘on their feet’.
As it happens, I’m in the process of putting together a workshop for practising (but inexperienced) teachers on lesson planning. Any suggestions? I thought about starting with a quote from Karl von Clausewitz:
“After we have thought out everything carefully in advance and have sought and found without prejudice the most plausible plan, we must not be ready to abandon it at the slightest provocation”