Week 6 Reflection - Teaching Large Classes

It took me a long time to read the reading material for this week since I teach large groups and mixed-levels.  I do believe that I will keep reading the texts in the future. I was surprised to see how practical the ideas offered are. Plus, they are not difficult to be implemented. I do believe that we as language teachers are more concerned with classroom dynamics and participation of students. There are times when I walked the corridors of the University and I hear the instructors speak. I do not hear the students much. I can imagine what people might be thinking when they pass my classroom. There is always noise. I tend to make students participate. What I learnt in the reading is how to make sure they do and how to monitor more closely what they do. In my teaching context, it was difficult to create a classroom atmosphere where students would talk freely, but in English. At first, they were shy which is understandable. As freshmen students, they did not know each other very well. They were new students in a new city and a new learning environment. What they did was keep silent and after some more encouragement, they would start to talk to their friends by whispering. That was at the beginning of the school year. As we are in the second semester, they already know each other and know that there would be some group work and talking in English. Now the challenge is how to closely observe what they talk about (they tend to finish what there were assigned to do and start talking about something else IN SERBIAN). I believe I have learnt some new ways how to observe more closely what is happening. I will try to use the techniques which break the class-pace a bit but asking them to think and share or asking them to prepare one minute papers. I believe that will work well.

The thing is, I feel more confident about my teaching context now. When teachers are confident in what they do, I think students sense it and become more responsible for their learning, as well.