MY INTERVENTION POINT

My intervention points:

“Students’ lack of confidence and fear when communicating a message in the foreign language”

“Negative attitudes due to the Lack of practice in oral skills”

Entry one:

“When I began the class, I attempted to speak in English but my students got shocked. They told me they had never heard a teacher communicating with them in that foreign language. Because the other teacher taught them only grammar”

“I have to do my best in order to change negative attitudes and behaviors towards learning this beautiful language”

Entry two:

“I also noticed there were students who expressed frustration because they did not understand what they had to do”

“The debate started, everyone was ashamed because they were not confident with the pronunciation of some words”

Entry three:

“In fact, most of the students were afraid of failing, nevertheless there were some of them who were willing to learn from their mistakes”

“When I saw my students ‘attitudes, I told them I understood it was not easy due to the lack of chances they had to interact in English, but also I mentioned it was not impossible and that I was not a “punisher” but I would provide guide and support in their learning”

“I was concerned because the other students were quiet”

Entry four

“Most of the tenth graders are characterized as “lazy or uncommitted” but I hoped to obtain their active participation in class”

“At the beginning of this exercise for some students it was difficult because they had never been told how to pronounce in English, and some questions were not clear for them”

I PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING ACTION PLAN: 

  1. Implementation of instruments such as self-observation and a survey to confirm the problem.

  2. To identify the causes of the problem by the implementation of an interview.

  3. To produce hypothesis about possible approaches that could help solve the problem

  4. To apply different approaches to try to solve the problem such as humanism, cooperative learning and task-based learning

  5. Creating strategies to counteract the problem. Bellow you can find possible strategies to raise the confidence, change negative attitudes and overcome students’ fears when communicating a message in the foreign language:

  a.       To develop cooperative learning (promoting negotiation of meaning, asking for clarification and other techniques to obtain feedback from peers)

  b.      To avoid direct correction of errors. (use of recasting, modeling, etc)

  c.       To promote peer monitoring

  d.      To promote a value-laden environment based on democracy, and values such as respect, love, responsibility and tolerance. This will might help to encourage language production.

  e.      Implementation of interesting material (could be authentic or adapted)
  f. To provide guidance and support in the development of oral skills
  g. To implement games to increase confidence and relaxation to communicate a message in the foreign language.
  h. To make deal with students about the process of using the foreign language.
  j.  To encourage the students by making them feel important in the class. Additionally, the teacher should appreciate the students' efforts (offering congratulations, rewarding with prizes etc).

  6. Writing and applying lesson plans to carry out the strategies proposed previously.

  7.  Reflection in, on and for action

  8. Writing a teaching journal to analyze if the intervention was successful or not, as well as to write my understandings about the students’ learning and improvement.

  9. Reexamine my perspectives and considering some changes of strategies to attempt to solve the problem.

   TO CLARIFY WHY HUMANISM COULD BE ONE POSSIBLE APPROACH TO KEEP IN MIND.

   

      A possible factor of students’ attitudes and low confidence could be the development of a high affective filter in most of the students. Therefore, the introduction of humanism in class might provide strategies to solve the main issue.

According to Curran (1976) Humanism “Views the language class as a community in which the learners builds up trust and interactive relationships with other members to enhance language learning”

With this in mind, teachers should provide a good environment by building safe relationships in the classroom. Hence, teachers become facilitators and offer a nice learning atmosphere.

According to Paul Bress (2005) the humanistic teacher is someone who is aware of possible changes that could benefit the performance and behavior of the students.

Moreover, teachers will be aware of the individual learners' 'developmental readiness' (Piaget, 1970, as cited in Paul Bress in 2005). This is really worthy to understand and decide when and how to teach according to the students learning styles. Finally, humanistic teachers attempt to seek the factors that affect the motivation of every learner and reflect on the differences.

References

 https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/humanistic-language-teaching