Wednesday, December 14, 2011

TKT Training

Today did some vocational training sessions
Many of the vocational trainers don't really use the TKT web site that much;Asma who's had trouble with her password and recently changed it;actually said her daughter had changed it;choosing a rather comlicated password with many numbers which won't be easy to remember especially as Asma didn't create the password.In Bangkok the students did the same thing when  creating their passwords using many numbers and symbols;practically impossible to remember.Another thing that Asma said that although Tunisians have more access to modern technology they were afraid of it or was she just speaking about herself.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Aljazeera English Cafe In Tunis

On Saturday the TV channel Aljazeeera English were filming a debate at the Le Grand Cafe du Theatre in the centre of Tunis as part of their new Aljazeera Cafe Show - a round-table debate featuring five women and one man in the debate,mostly likely discussing the recent election in Tunisia.The show will be broadcasted on TV in three weeks time.Yesterday I met Hafed,who used to work on Radio Mosaique but now works for Aljazeera English.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Teamwork and Dynamics in the language classroom videos

While googling 'Dynamics in the language classroom' I found some interesting Teamwork and Dynamics in the language classroom videos

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Feedback

from Amos:Spending time twice a week at the British council has been a great experience for me and that has really helped me to consolidate, upgrade my basic skills in English.

I also got an opportunity to meet some kind friends and I keep studying English with them generally on Facebook and sometimes with a cup of coffee cups with my friendsin the restaurant.

As you know, my goal is to obtain top scores in either  TOEFL or IELTS that will be benefit me and open the way to postgraduate studies.

I have spent this summer improving my English, if you have any information or books don't hesitate to give me.

keep safe and we stay in touch.


from Marwen:Of course interacting with different people help very much :)


from Mounir: Anyway, I have decided to continue my studying English at the British Council, I really miss every one and I miss the class atmosphere, the group everything at the British Council.

So far the feedback received reflects similar interactions that would have happened in the class:Amos very confident in expressing himself and refelcting upon his learning experience and Mounir also expressed his opinions but to a lesser degree.Marwen,like in the classroom,made a very short comment;quiet limiting himself to short comments.

Haven't received any comments,in regards to my question,"Does interactions help with developing/learning English?" from Nizar,Abir and Khouloud and nothing from the students of group 2. 

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Last Day

The students interacted enthusiastically on their last day.


From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Group 2 Pre Intermediate

Tuesday did a group questionnaire with Semiah and Anis as group secretaries:Anis for group 1(Mohamed,Dhia and Wassis)and Semih for group 2(Oussema,Ridha and Manel).
Anis and Semih were very good in giving their feedback.
Wassin was quiet as usual though he seems he's got the level to participate more but doesn't seem particularly interested maybe a different topic?
Oussema was also quiet but maybe participated a bit more than
Wassin.Group 2 worked together much better than group 1 at doing and discussing the task and the outcome whilst group 1 was mostly dominated by Mohamed but later he did realise he had to give Wassin an opportunity to speak.
Is it a problem
of age and experience?Wassin
and Oussema are the youngest and perhaps feel less confident in their speaking but Dhia,who is much older is often quiet who could speak and participate more but he over the past few months he has improved.

From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?

Monday, June 20, 2011

Group 1 Wednesday/Friday Pre Inter

Last week Abir and Marwen were quiet;especially Marwen,the youngest student was working with the new students and was quieter than usual.However,outside class he's very communicative.


From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?  Did you discover anything new?
  
Did students contribute actively to the lesson? 
Reflecting on some  of the students' 'territorial' behaviour for instance,the some of the latecomers (in group 1 as well as group 2) very often chose to sit with the same student/s,even though there wasn't space at the desk to work properly. Nizar who always arrived late for class ( because of his job) often sat with Abir or his preferred partner but not with the new students.

On page 84,of the book 'Group Dynamics in the language classroom',Dornyei and Murphey discuss the classroom environment contribution to group dynamics and state that 'humans,like animals,are territorial by nature,students who sit in the same seat in two consecutive lessons are already apt to think of that palc as theirs.Therefore the students who always sit in the same place or with the same students limit the number of potential interactions with the other students;they put constraints on their using/developing the target language.

Dornyei and Murphey mention that 'having students move around in class,changing seats and partners from the very first lesson,not only keeps them from claiming a permanent position in the classroom,but it can allow them to get comfortable in the classroom working with different partners and in any part of the classroom. 



Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?

Monday, May 30, 2011

Cohesiveness questionnaire group 2 Pre Intermediate Wednesday/Friday 2011

Most of the students,who started in the Elementary class in October continued so only a few new students Nadia,Femi,Mustapha,Meriam,Atef,Alba
On this day of the questionnaire there were 16 students.
The results of the questionnaire for group One:
11 students completely agreed or agreed that their class is better than other groups;nearly 75% of the students in fact three times the percentages of students in group two.
9 students completey agreed or agreed that they would participate in another class if it had similar students.
All the 16 students completely agreed or agreed that the class was composed of students who got on very well.Again all the 16 students completely agreed or agree with the statement that the class was composed of students who liked each other.
15 students completely agreed or agreed that they were satisfied with their class.
12 students completely agreed or agreed that there were some students who worked with the same people.
11(nearly 75%) students added additional comments for the questionnaire whilst only only 3 students(33%) of the students in group two added additional comments for the questionnaire.


I've found that,in general,from the students who have been in the same group since October the cohesiveness seem to be high as they agreed with the following statements:
they would like participate in a similar group,
they get on well with each other,

Joseph who was in group 2 before hasn't always been able to attend to attend all the classes didn't realise that of the students often worked with the same people.
Amos,also from Cameroon is the most perceptive and intelligent in all the answers he has given in the questionnaires and interviews.

From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?

Friday, May 27, 2011

Cohesive questionnaire:Pre Inter 2 class Tuesday/Thursday

Most of the students,who started in the Elementary class in October didn't continue so only the students Akrem,Mohammed,Anis,Simiah and Dhia.

On this day of the cohesiveness questionnare(based on the short questionnare by Clement,Dornyei and Noels(1994)to measure learners's perceptions of the cohesiveness of their learner group.
I adapted the statements and also reworded the negatively worded statements into posyive statements so that the questionnaire had less of a negative influence,(How do know this ?did you try the original questionnaire with another group or whatever)in addition to work out the scoring and to analyse the results.

there were nine students,Dhia was absence due to his work and being away from Tunisia.I've found that,in general,from the students who have been in the same group since October the cohesiveness seem to be high as they agreed with the following statements:
they would like participate in a similar group,
they get on well with each other,
From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?

Monday, May 9, 2011

Pre Intermediate 2 Classes

Group 2 Pre-Intermediate 1 class Tuesday and Thursday;not so many of the students from this class had been in the Elementary 3 class in October;only Alessandro and Dhia remained from this class;there was also Akrem but he had to move to another class because of his timetable at university......

From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?


Pre Intermediate 1 classes Update

Group 1 Pre-Intermediate 1 class Wednesday and Friday;quite a few of the students from this class were in the Elementary 3 class,which started in October 2010:Mounir,Abir,Khouloud,Amos,Marwen,Nizar,though Samia and Anouar were actually in the other Elementary 3 class(Samia although she was initially quiet and shy at the beginning of the course in Ocotber she had become more confident in interacting with her peers whilst Anouar,also quiet and shy,had only become a little more confident in his speaking and interacting with his peers.Mounir,Khouloud and Amos remained confident as usual and interacted a lot with the others whilst Marwen and Nizar were quiet but confident but still at times could interact more with the others but they often seem to be tired and reluctant to participate.Abir is still extremely quiet and shy and not really interacting any more than at the beginning of the course.

From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Closure of group with Ele 3/4 group

Recently(on the 3rd of March) did closure end of course session with my Ele 3/4 Wed/Friday class but the strange thing is Meriam did not come the next class and has not continuing studying on the next course;Leticia didn't come either but that wasn't surprising as she seems busy with her job.
I didn't do end of closure with the other Ele 3/4 class (Tues/Thursday).


From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?

Monday, February 21, 2011

Revision Ele 4 ( Wednesday/Friday class)



From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?

Thursday, February 17, 2011

The book or the film?

On Monday it was Valentine's Day and as a warmer I did a Have you ever ..? mingle,which included questions connected to the special day.
The students enjoyed the rhyming words and creating their Valentine cards and poems(most of them used the examples I'd provided)

Mourad,Mounir and Soumaya were making lots of jokes which made for a pleasant atmosphere.
(only 7 students came)
On Wednesday the topic was books and films,which revised present perfect and ended up with the students discussing whether the question:which is better,the book or the film?


From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?




Monday, January 10, 2011

How do you do it? (Ele 4 Tues/Friday class)

Today the focus is on adjectives and adverbs basically revising the previous lesson.

From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?

Friday, January 7, 2011

Life in a new country (Ele 4 Wed/Friday)

Today the topic is on living in a new country.
The language point is adjectives and adverbs.

stage one:the students guess the cities and brainstorm as much information about the cities.

stage two:jig saw reading activity;each group read/coomplete the information about their person
then one person from each group swop with another group

stage three:discuss the question 'Which city would they like to live in?


From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Life in a new country (Ele 4 Tues/Thursday)

Today the topic is on living in a new country.
The language point is adjectives and adverbs.

stage one:the students guess the cities and brainstorm as much information about the cities.

stage two:jig saw reading activity;each group read/coomplete the information about their person
then one person from each group swop with another group

stage three:discuss the question 'Which city would they like to live in?'


From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.

On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide thé writing of the journal:
What did you set out to teach?
Were you able to accomplish your goals?
What teaching materisls did you use?
What grouping arrangements did you use?

Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Did you discover anything new?
Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Were the students challenged by the lesson?
What do you think the students really learned from the lesson?
What did they like most about the lesson?
What didn't they respond to?




Wednesday, January 5, 2011

New Year Day Resolutions (Ele 4 Wednesday/Friday)

Today the topic is on the NewYear Day Resolutions.
the language structure is: going to

stage one:the students wrote/discussed good and bad habits and in their groups

stage two:the students wrote down their New Year Resolutions and then in their groups
compared/discussed them

stage three:group to group interaction:with another group each group compared/discussed
the resolutions and decided the best/most interesting ones.

From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide the writing of the journal:

1. Discussing/making New Year Resolutions:

Group 1: Elementary 3

1. Did the students contribute actively to the lesson?
Yes, by interacting with each other in pairs and then in groups in comparing their habits and making new resolutions. 2. Were the students challenged by the lesson? They wrote/discussed good and bad habits and in their groups.
stage two:the students wrote down their New Year Resolutions and then in their groups
compared/discussed them
 3. What did the students learn from the lesson?The students learnt to use the structure 'going to ' to talk about their resolutions. 4. Did anything amusing or unusual happen?Mounir interacted the most with his peers and instigated the discussion in his group.Mourad,a new student in the class expressed his views but not particularly interacting with any particular person.
Of the other male students Tek and Mekki interacted quite a lot.
Marwen could interact more but is a bit shy and quiet.
Of the female students Meriam,Khouloud and Soumaya interacted quite a lot.
Leticia hardly interacts with her peers and Abir prefers to interact with her female peers rather than the people in her group.
 5. Were there any problems that occurred?  Raja who has a very low level doesn't hardly interacts with the others and doesn't really understand the teacher.
 6. Which part of the lesson was most successful or least successful?The students discovered information about each other's habits and made resolutions. 

New Year Day Resolutions (Ele 4 Tuesday/Thursday)

Yesterday the topic was on the NewYear Day Resolutions.
the language structure was: going to
stage one:the students wrote/discussed good and bad habits and in their groups
stage two:the students wrote down their New Year Resolutions and then in their groups
compared/discussed them
stage three:group to group interaction:with another group each group compared/discussed
the resolutions and decided the best/most interesting ones.

From the book Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms,Richards,J.C.,in the chapter,approaches to classroom investigation,some important procedures are recommended:
Bailey 1990,Porter et al.1990,Walker 1985 state that it's important to make entries on a regular basis and immediately spend time after the lesson in writing up about the lesson
In addition to review the journal entries as some things which were not obviously apparent might appear so later on.On page 16 Richards,J.C. mentions some reflection questions to guide the writing of the journal:
Discussing/making New Year Resolutions:
Group 2:Elementary 3:

1. Did the students contribute actively to the lesson?
Yes, though it was mainly the male students and even though the female students had a fairly good level of English they seemed too shy and quiet to participate and interact with the male students.

2. Were the students challenged by the lesson? 
They interacted in pairs and groups when making/discussing the New Year Resolutions.

3. What did the students learn from the lesson?
They learnt to use the structure 'going to' to make/talk about New Year Resolutions.

4. Did anything amusing or unusual happen?
In this class there are new students and most of these students interact a lot with their peers whilst the old students interacted as they did before in the previous class;ie the confident students:Akrem interacting a lot as usual,though sometimes in Arabic in a conversation with Ibrahim (seems to be a case of code switching,perhaps to avoid misunderstanding and to clarify the meaning of something more clearly),
and Anis,Dhia,Fares interacting only sufficiently to do the activity.

Akrem,Ibrahim,Sami and Mohamed interactions often focused on explaining something to their peers.


5. Were there any problems that occurred? Dhia is still shy and quiet even though he does have the ability to speak and interact much more,seems lacking in confidence.Sometimes he's seems tired from his work.Of the new students the male students:Ibrahim,Mohamed,Sofiene,Sami interacted a lot while the female students Maria,Barbara interact quite a lot but not as much as the male students.Nada,one of the new female students,is a bit shy and quiet and doesn't interact so much.

6. Which part of the lesson was most successful or least successful?
The students discovered information about each other's habits and made New Year Resolutions.