USEFUL TOOLS...

This week has definitely led me to reflect on an issue which I usually skip on. The texts we useat the language centre I work in, have small sections based on pronunciation that I simply do not do, sometimes because of lack of time, I should say, or because I know it is something which hardly ever comes in the quizzes. Phonetics is actually a topic I do not feel comfortable when teaching. What I teach on pronunciation is what I really know well. Asking us to visit some websites with the eyes of what could be useful in our classes led me to http://www.english-online.org.uk/pronounce/pronounce5.htm, which for sure I would include in my lab lesson I next time.

I have always thought that a native speaker can help learners with phonetics and pronunciation in a better way than a Spanish speaker, but the article suggested in the current course I am taking, has quoted one of Jeremy Harmer’s idea so well about the aim teachers should have when dealing with pronunciation and that is help our students be understood and in order to accomplish so we should work on developing  and not looking  accent perfection. 

I am the kind of teacher who is keen on systematizing his work. It might be for several reasons such as time constraints due to my life being a mother, a wife, a daughter, a house wife, and a teacher. I have a file for each level I teach full of sheets ready to be photocopied and have them used in class. They are also in my computer to do the necessary changes or adapt them since every class is unique and has its own differences.

Besides, I also have some important websites of all types joined in a file on my computer so that I can access to them faster and easily.

‘Meeting’ Delicious .com is definitely a plus to my style so now I am going to have a pool of websites related to teaching at hand.

I have always had the idea that a blog can be a useful tool in class for developing students’ language skills in a TEFL class. After reading one of the sample projects and seeing the blog used, it is like my idea has come true.

This project was focused on developing grammar and writing, but I guess there are so many things we can develop on our students there. Actually, the teacher from the project involved used it with different classes later on.

Working with a community blog might mean a lot of research on the net from the part of the teacher so that the tasks to be assigned have the same goal with instructions to be followed.

I am really interested in doing this on a regular semester which in our language centre lasts about four months.