Student Teaching ★ October 6 , 2005

★☆ Teaching Practice ☆★

To readers
This is my analysis of Unit 4&5 in New Horizon English Course 3 (U4&5 in NH3, for short) and my opinion about teaching English at junior high school. They are based on both my success and failure during my teaching practice this summer, so I’m very happy if I receive any comment.
（ I realizad a lack in my knowledge of English and imformation about other countries and my country. Especially, my pronounciation of English is greatly different from that of native speakers. So I thought that I should learn not only teaching methods and English grammar, but also phonetics and intercultural communication more during university students. I want to try my best and improve my speaking and listening skills of English and know about foreign countries more and see the beauty of my country, Japan!! (V)o￥o(V)　）

1. successful points
① Classroom English
I almost used English in my class. Because I thought that it is absurd to use Japanese when students try to study English, and I wanted to give them as many changes as possible to listen to English. Classroom English is very useful in teaching English, and I thought it makes good atmosphere of English classroom and encourages the students to speak English.
I thought that even if students could not understand our classroom English, we had better not use Japanese to explain the words. Because students have power to guess the words which they could not understand. So we have to let students use their imagination and ability to guess.
ex)
・Demonstrate-------------- U4 p.46 "raise"
・Use the real thing--------- U4 p.44 "fan"
・Draw or Sketch----------- U4 p.51 "line"
・Antonyms------------------ U4 p.53 "expensive" ⇔ cheap
・Synonyms------------------ U4 p.46 "loud" ≒ big
・Verbal explanation------- U4 p.47 "thirsty" → If you want something to eat, you are hungry. If you want something to drink, you are thirsty.

② Study about sound
Students have few chances to study about sound in this textbook. So I tried to let them study about sound each time when we checked the new words.
ex)
U4 p.44 fan-fun
U4 p.46 raise-rise
U4 p.47 thirsty [th] ... etc

③ A lot of care to students' activity
There were many kind of students in the classroom. So there were some pairs who could not do their activity well( because they hated each other) in each class. When I noticed the trouble, I stopped doing pair activity and changed group activity in the next class. But to do group activity was worse than pair activity, because the chances to speak English decreased by doing group activity. So next class, I went to the pair and did the activity with them. As a result, they could do pair activity with me. If I did not notice this situation, they won't do the activity during my class. I thought that it was important to see students' activity carefully.

④ Warm-up
I did criss-cross for warm-up before presenting the new material. Students enjoyed this game, and their speaking and listening skills were improved day by day. I gave them questions from textbook(new words, grammar, dialog). So Students were watching their textbook for preparing this game before the class. I thought that to make good atmosphere of class is very important. After this game, the atmosphere of my class was wonderful. So I could teach smoothly.

⑤ P.P.P
Studnts study English to use English, so the goal of the class is not to master the grammar or to practice hard. The goal of the English class is to use the new material by themselves. That is why, it is important for us to make the lesson plan like "Presentation→Practice→Production", and make time to produce.
ex)
U5 p.55 ”間接疑問文(an indirect question)”
Goal: To talk with your partner using indirect questions and know about your partner.

⑥ Gather students' worksheet.
I gathered students’ worksheet every day to check･･･
・spell(There were many mistakes which students could not notice.)
・Who could understand? Who could not understand?
・What was difficult[easy] for them?
・What kind of mistakes did they make?
I could notice many things from students’ worksheet. So I could modify and devise my lesson plan for next class, and make better one.


2. Bad points(changes for the better)
① Deductive instruction ＜ Inductive instruction
I explained students new material in Japanese using grammatical language on the blackboard. The students who like English could understand and satisfied my teaching, but this explanation is maybe hard for some students who hate English. I should give students more examples concluding the new material, and let them notice and guess about the new material without boring explanation. And all students may study it naturally.

② evaluation words
My pet phrase was “OK”. One of an English teacher advised me that you should make the differences between ”Are you OK?” and “That’s OK” , and use more evaluation words like “good, excellent, good job, great “. So I made list of evaluation words in my mind and tried to use these words. ( A: Excellent! , B: Great! , C: Good job! , D: Good! , E: OK! )

③ worksheet
I almost used English in my class, but I made work sheet in Japanese.
ex) 氏名、組、番、学習日
I could put many words into English.

④ Make a clear goal
At first my plan was too ambitious because I wanted to mix writing, speaking, listening and reading. So every activity did not work well. I thought that it is difficult to use four skills only 50 minutes, and I understood that to focus and make clear goal is very important to make a effective activity.

I thought that the most important things is to communicate with students and know them. If we counld not make good relationship, we will not be able to make good classes. I do not know what kind of teacher is a good teacher, but I believe that the teacher who tries to understand students is a good teacher.