Reflections at the End of an ESL Day

Joanna Scott
Westford, MA

A day teaching English as a second language to adults is a day filled with constantly changing situations. I'm sure that we've all been in the classroom when an idea that was to be used as a ten-minute warm-up, fill-in or review ends up as an hour-long activity, just as an involved series of tasks sometimes has to be cut short or even eliminated. Teaching instincts and our individual flexibility allow lots of changes to take place within the classroom, in a way that feels normal and natural. This in turn creates a relaxed and spontaneous atmosphere for learning to take place. Whether your lesson plans are formal and written down or simply stored in your head, and whether they are carried out in tact, or changed, it is always good planning to run a checklist at the end of the hour, lesson or day. This is in effect a self-evaluation, a reflection of what happened in your class and with your teaching. The checklist might look something like the following:

End of Class Reflection List

a) Was the aim/goal of the lesson/activity achieved?
b) Were the students happy, working and interested?
c) Was I well prepared?
d) With hindsight, what would I do differently?
e) Was I checking students' understanding throughout the activity?
f) Did I use good correction techniques?
g) What techniques did I use to elicit answers and conversation from the students (also known as nomination techniques)?

Keeping this list at the front of your lesson planning book or at the back of your mind really serves as a good framework or reminder. It helps me keep an ongoing conversation with myself and also my class that feels somewhat organized, or structured in nature. It makes the next day's lesson planning more logical, more coherent to the previous day's because I'm able to draw from my analysis of my teaching, the students' behavior, learning, and understanding and build on what I have learned.

I focus on the last three points of the reflection list. They are, first of all, very much related; they work together in the process of this self evaluation. These three questions of checking understanding, using good correction techniques, and eliciting responses often help me to build relationships with my students and to plan ways to encourage the students' participation in class. The way we use these methods affects how we teach, our interaction with students, and how we plan activities and whole lessons. Ultimately they teach us how to do our jobs.

It is also important to remember that students need to understand what we are doing and to know what is expected of them. Our behavior, the techniques, and the methods we use must stimulate students, to provide a level of comfort and challenge at the same time. Students will become familiar with our methods, will pick up on what we are doing, and know what is expected of them when we are consistent with how we question, correct, or elicit. This is how we build relationships with our students.

One program I have been teaching in recently -- a year-round, five-day-a-week program -- also has given me the luxury of time to try to learn from these ideas and to build these relationships. Too often, though, we teach in programs where the lesson time is short and infrequent, making the consistency of our methods of checking understanding, correcting and eliciting all the more important, being sure that we communicate our expectations clearly, and that we get feedback and participation from our students.

Checking Understanding

It is important to be aware, using techniques I will discuss, of students' real understanding of a grammar point, new vocabulary, or simply the conversation going on in the classroom. It becomes much easier and more efficient to make a decision as to whether to continue, or whether to adapt or review the ongoing activity, lesson, or material being taught or being reinforced.

Checking understanding is one of the important parts of the reflection checklist that needs to happen throughout the lesson as well as at the end. The information you receive as a teacher affects how you teach in the future and what the next steps need to be. Although most of us do this anyway, it is important to revisit and review how and when we do so.

Some of the times when it is necessary to check understanding might be when:

1. You are presenting new language items.

2. A problem has arisen in the course of a lesson, or when you realize a student has not grasped something.

3. You are correcting student errors.

4. You are giving instructions.

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How Do We Do This?

The most common way is through questioning students on an ongoing basis. However, the question "Do you understand?" does not usually work for several reasons:

1. The student may actually think s/he understands, but doesn't.

2. S/he may not want to admit not understanding, perhaps for fear of losing face, taking time, or just fear of talking.

3. A student may not be clear what part of the lesson s/he is supposed to understand; the question itself is not clear.

Here is an example of using productive questioning to check understanding:

During a lesson about English idioms and expressions, paraphrase or simplify the expression you are teaching to see if students have understood it.

For instance, if you are teaching the expression 'it isn't necessary,' first change it to 'don't have to'.

Having simplified the expression, use that simplification to create an interactive dialogue between you and the class or student. Then pose the question to the class or student:

Teacher. "'You don't have to bring a gift to a dinner party, do you?"

If the student has grasped what you are teaching, the answer will show the understanding.

Student: "No, you don't have to, the host does not expect it, it isn't necessary."

This tells you that the expression has truly been understood and that the student knows how to use it in conversation. If the response is not similar to this example, you now know to re-teach the lesson in another way.

Another way to use questioning effectively to check understanding is to use a statement, followed by questions. For instance, if you are teaching a new vocabulary word like 'hesitated', the dialogue might be:

Statement to student: "She hesitated before answering the question."
Question to student: "Did she answer the question?"
Student response: "Yes."
Question: "Did she answer it immediately?"
Student response: "No."
Question: "Did she wait for a moment before answering?"
Student response: "Yes, she hesitated."

Again, an inappropriate answer will alert you to look back at the way you taught the lesson and adapt that method and then use questioning to check understanding again. Other ways of checking understanding can include:

1. Explanations given by the students themselves: e.g., a student explains the word 'mortgage' by saying, "You buy a house and write a check to the bank every month." True, but a limited statement. The teacher must then follow with questions to check that the other students also understand, for instance: "Who actually owns the house until the mortgage payments (monthly checks) are all paid?" or "How long do you have to send the checks? or " Are you buying your home if you pay rent?"

2. Using contrasts /oppositions: e.g, when learning adjectives, "What is the opposite of 'tall', or 'noisy'... ('acting out' adjectives helps a lot here too, particularly when the students are doing it, too, perhaps turning the lesson onto a guessing game, charades...) or providing students with contrasting statements to define:

   a) I really don't like pizza."
   b) I don't really like pizza."

   If the statements are understood, the students' definitions should make it apparent that the person in statement (a) feels much more strongly about not liking pizza than the person in (b).

3. Prompting: The teacher can provide prompt words to check that students can make meaning of a structure as in the following:

4. Student: I used to smoke a lot.
   Teacher: But...?
   Student: But I don't now.

   This tells us that 'used to' is understood to be in the past.

5. Translation is also an important tool in a monolingual situation. There are inherent dangers though: the first language can be too easily become the preferred method of communication, and there aren't always translation equivalents.

6. Using timelines followed by questions to check understanding of verb tenses. Students indicate on the line what the statement suggests:

7. Diagram on board:

   ___________________x___ (x = now)

   I arrived -- the train left.
   Question: "Did the train leave before or after I arrived?"
   "Did I arrive before or after the train left?"
   Statement: " When I arrived, the train left."

   Or:

   ___________________x___ (x = now)

   When I arrived the train had left
   the train left     I arrived

Use the same line of questioning for each tense you teach.

Be as thorough as possible without losing the students' interest. Checking can be oral, but using the blackboard provides a visual record of meaning.

A high level of understanding and learning depends to a large extent on the material being presented at the right level, and being well presented with activities designed to capture and keep a student's attention. It is also dependent on some other factors that were mentioned in the reflection list, namely correction and eliciting techniques.

Correction Techniques

Given that the best learning usually takes place when students are involved and comfortable enough to speak out, when they are not afraid to make a mistake, an important goal is to decrease the teacher talking time (TTT) and increase student talking time (STT).

To do this, the ways we correct students become critical. We need to create situations, opportunities, and time for students not only to want to speak out but to want to correct themselves as often as possible and feel proud of doing so. There are strategies we can use to deal with errors in all respects including those that come up as a result of checking understanding and from what we hear when we use different nomination techniques.

The principle is simple. When a student makes an error in grammar or pronunciation and you feel it is necessary or appropriate to correct it right then, consider the following:

Student: "I can to swim.'
Teacher: "I can _____?" [using questioning expression/encouraging hand signals... and wait for an alternate response.]

This can be repeated more than once, or maybe opened up to the class to answer, having the original student repeat or just continue on, as you deem appropriate. Basically, the fewer words the teacher speaks, the better; simply repeat the sentence up to the point of error and wait.

If the teacher simply provides the answer, not only does less learning take place but you disallow the student's pleasure and pride of stating the correct answer. I believe that by correcting effectively, we can increase understanding dramatically.

There is, of course, always the question of whether to correct, and if so, whether to do so at the point of error, or later. Errors that should probably be corrected are those that interfere severely with communication between students or those that would make it difficult for students to understand the next phase of a lesson. If you realize, for instance, that a student has misconstrued a new vocabulary word such as 'consistent,' thinking it means 'disagreeable,' then your plan to use it in some free discussion will not be productive. It needs correction.

The next question is whether the whole class needs help or just one person, and then the best way to carry out the correction. To alleviate embarrassment for an individual, initially praise (it must have validity) the student for their good pronunciation, the good sentence they said prior to the error, or what is appropriate, and approach the error second. Give a sentence using 'consistent' correctly, and ask how it sounded, or throw the question of meaning out to the class to discuss, while thanking the original student for their input. In other words, like in most situations related to work in the classroom, emphasize the positive and don't dwell on the negative. If students are reading, I try to interject the right pronunciation quietly and let them repeat it essentially without interruption. I find that other students do it anyway and in general it is non-threatening in a class where the atmosphere has been encouraged to be one of supporting and helping one another. The less anxiety the better!

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Nomination Techniques

Just as checking understanding and effective correction techniques are skills to be learned, using various ways of nomination also require practice and planning at first. Some techniques to try are:

1. Eye contact. This uses no language and so keeps distraction to a minimum.

2. Random. Keeps everyone awake because students cannot predict when they will be called on.

3. In order. Fair, predictable but can cause students to lose focus on work going on because they are so busy anticipating what they might have to answer.

4. Free, volunteer. Particularly good at point of lesson or free stage when real life situations are being acted out.

By eye contact I mean to catch a student's attention and silently communicate that you would like for them to respond. It should be non-threatening -- no names are called out -- but if it is clear that the student can't or won't answer, you can continue to another student or choose another technique to use. I like to use this a lot because it is quiet and my voice is not interrupting or distracting the ongoing work. It also gives choice to the students because they can avoid the teacher's eye if they want to. Instinct will tell you when to change, whether you feel it necessary to have someone participate or not. Random nomination can also work well when you need to keep a particular individual or group alert. In this method, you would call specific names of those you want to be involved. If you have students who are particularly shy or anxious, and you can tell them ahead that they just need to listen, that you won't call on them until they are ready. Their relief will allow them to learn much better!

Try to observe reactions. Are you keeping students alert without being nervous or anxious? Are they drifting, falling asleep? Is the pace of the class being slowed down or becoming too predictable? Are students waiting, hoping to participate? Be aware that nominating gives you, as teacher, control: e.g., "'Maria, tell us...."

I find that it is good at times to have the students choose the next person, nominee. Think about how much control you want to be comfortable. Think too about what makes your class more comfortable. The random method can be very scary to a shy, nervous learner but success for that individual will build tremendous self confidence and serve too to encourage his/her classmates. We have a responsibility to help students take a risk, to speak out and feel motivated. Should the class seem reticent in these situations however, the material may be too hard and need to be modified. This is also an opportunity to check understanding during the activity, to support and encourage.

When we elicit answers in order, there may be two opposing reactions within your group of students. Some will enjoy knowing when they will be called on, and relax meantime. Others won't be able to relax because they will focus all their attention on their turn, and may lose out on learning.

A large class lends itself to free, open nomination, which can be freeing for all, releasing pressures sometimes felt in smaller classes. I have used this method with success in higher level classes, where there is often more confidence. Open the classroom floor to students, to allow those willing to answer freely. This often creates a noisy, stimulating atmosphere of ideas and thereby encourages those more reticent to participate. The teacher's role is then to be a moderator.

In general, we will select the methods best suited to our style of teaching, and to the make-up of a class, but it can help us to expand students' learning if we are willing to try new ways of nomination. The goal is always to:

1. Elicit answers.

2. Encourage participation.

3. Check understanding.

4. Correct errors.

5. Revise work.

6. Give or keep control.

It is the role of a teacher to help motivate students to learn, to create the opportunities to learn, and to foster or provide a good atmosphere in which to do so. In order to ensure that learning does indeed take place. We have to be quite careful to monitor our own work, and be careful to take the guesswork out of our work. By checking understanding, by correcting and eliciting, we can actually see what is being learned as it happens, or at the end of the day when we are reflecting.

I would like to express my thanks to the students and teachers at Teacher Training International in London where I attended a TEFL course that taught me so much, in particular to understand and use some of the techniques and strategies I have discussed in this article.

Originally published in Adventures in Assessment, Volume 11 (Winter 1998),
SABES/World Education, Boston, MA, Copyright 1998.

Funding support for the publication of this document on the Web provided in part by the Ohio State Literacy Resource Center as part of the LINCS Assessment Special Collection.