Thompson Deufel

TESOL Korea
Dr. Cho and Dr. Peter
Reflective Teaching Narrative
1. What is your overall impression of the lesson? What part of the lesson do you think went
well? What part of the lesson do you wish had gone better?
I.

II.

My overall impression of the lesson, which was decisively formed only after I had the
opportunity to teach it multiple times, is that through its careful planning, simple structure, and
effective adaptability it was able to be implemented well in the EFL classroom. The Telephone
and Slap the Word activities supported the linguistic learning objective successfully once the
correct pace was found and an increase of student engagement was applied. The actual teaching
of phonics and pronunciation that took place in the middle of the lesson is the area that needs the
most reorganization. Simplifying instruction, improving content, and modifying the approach are
all necessary for the lesson to become better.
Again, after careful modification and improvement of the lesson as a whole, my overall
impression of the level is high. The first time the content was taught, the pace was too slow, there
were excessive amounts of downtime that were detrimental to the students learning, and the
overall engagement and motivation to learn was all but absent. After teaching the lesson just
once, reorganizing the teaching approach and modifying it to better suit the expected learning
experience of the students caused a remarkable difference. The concepts were better
communicated and the activities executed much more efficiently. Co-teaching with another
student teacher helped with the flow of class and supported the smooth transitions required for
this lesson to be a success. These changes helped both teacher and student to be engaged in the
instruction and motivated to learn throughout the entire class.
2. Were the lesson objectives met by all of the students by the end of the lesson? How do
you know? Did some students achieve the objectives more fully than others?

I.

II.

By the end of the class I am confident that the majority of the students had completed the content
and language objectives that I hoped to achieve through this lesson. I am unable to determine
whether my approach had 100% comprehension for every student, yet it may be argued how
implausible this is to realistically attain. For this reason, I continue to persistently look for ways
to revise so a greater number of students may acquire a more comprehensive idea of the concept
being taught. I know that the majority of my classes understood the differentiation between the
phonemes because of the class choral responses when I informally gauged their comprehension,
as well as their active participation in the Slap the Word activity. Without learning and
understanding the content of the lesson, the engagement in both of these would have been
noticeably reduced. Some students may have achieved the objectives more fully than others, but
the way the lesson is presently structured, there is no way of knowing the exact level of the
students understanding.
As mentioned previously, it is difficult to truthfully and accurately distinguish just how many
students complete the target lesson objectives. From my perspective, and to the best of my
ability, I would confidently state that the majority of my students grasped the concept of the
Olympics as a whole and the vocabulary words that correspond with the event. The highest

number of students were able to fully comprehend the lesson because we reviewed vocabulary
words at the beginning of class, utilized multiple types of learning approaches in the activities,
and employed repetition to establish a strong understanding of the content. We know these
techniques were successful because of the active participation and engagement students
displayed in the activities. Some students may have achieved the objectives more than the others,
but a broad understanding of the content for the class as a whole can be acknowledged.
3. What kinds of errors were they making? How did you treat those errors? Was your
treatment effective in improving their use of that particular language form?
I.

II.

All of the errors encountered during the lesson were in relation to how the student perceived the
English words and the amount of knowledge they had for how to accurately pronounce them.
Both /p/ and /b/ phonemes and /f/ and /v/ phonemes were incorrectly spoken throughout the
class, so to counter this I provided immediate correction when these occurred and had the class
repeat the correct phonation together. This recasting placed emphasis on the difference between
the right and wrong pronunciation while engaging the class as a whole. In this case, I believe my
treatment to improve the students ability to use correct pronunciation was effective.
The mistakes made by students in this lesson were generally either their spelling of different
sports or the inaccurate assumption of a particular sport being included in the Olympics. We
chose to treat these errors by having students classmates review and correct the word lists
created, that way they were able to practice forming and writing vocabulary words as well as
reading and critically evaluating whether a word should or should not be included in a list. Doing
so balanced the role of the student, improving their comprehension of the language and keeping
them engaged in the lesson.
4. What did you hope would take place during the group activities? How did you decide on
this particular activity? Was it interesting for them? Did they use authentic language?

I.

II.

During the group activities, especially during the T-P-S, I hoped the students would follow my
directions and be open to collaborating with their classmates. I decided on this particular
approach to help introduce the topic because it connected the students prior knowledge of
difficult pronunciation in the English language with the specific aspects of phonics that I was
going to teach. In addition to this, the activity worked very well with students because of how it
combined personal knowledge with shared knowledge. Once I found the best way to
communicate my instructions and expectations, it became an excellent way to keep the students
engaged while maintaining a decent pace.
Instead of focusing the lesson on a single exercise, we chose to structure the class to concentrate
on several diverse activities that reinforce the language learning objectives while having the
students compete against one another in a contest. We chose this arrangement for the lesson
because of its relation to how South Korea is hosting the Winter Olympics in 2018, the emphasis
on globalization and international perspective the event itself contains, and the energetic and
positive attitude we are able to create for the learning environment. We hoped students would
enjoy the content and atmosphere of the lesson while also learning vocabulary and practicing
their knowledge of English.

5. Was this lesson that you selected easy or difficult for your students? What part of the
lesson was new for them? What part did they already know? How did you attempt to
provide them with i+1?
I.

II.

I believe this lesson to be of a moderate difficultly level that contains concepts that students have
already encountered in previous classes. By building up from this foundation of learning,
students are motivated to learn new ideas because of the confidence they have from
understanding the previous lesson. The new knowledge gained from this particular lesson was
limited, as it focused instead on strengthening students awareness of the differentiation between
phonetic sounds they already know. I attempted to utilize the input hypothesis in the Slap the
Word activity, mixing words containing different phonemes and instructing students to read and
correctly pronounce them.
This lesson was of a moderate difficulty for the students because of how it integrates a review of
previously known vocabulary words while also introducing new terminology in a variety of
contexts and situations. The activities are unfamiliar to the students, their knowledge of English
vocabulary being tested through the completion of an assortment of trials and evaluations. We
attempted to provide aspects of the input hypothesis by challenging students to recognize that the
idea of vocabulary is something that transcends simply being found in a textbook. Pushing
students to connect terms to realistic scenarios enriches their comprehension of the lesson and
prepares students to use English outside of the classroom.
6. In general, what have you been your greatest successes in teaching this group? What do
you think you need to know how to do better?

I.

II.

In my opinion, my greatest success teaching this lesson was structuring it in a way that made the
content exciting and relatable. The pace allowed for a high level of engagement to be kept
throughout. Once I had completed the major revisions required in order to help the class run
smoother, students seemed to genuinely enjoy the lesson and activities. In contrast, I recognize
that I need to continue searching for practical techniques that I can use during the actual teaching
of the lesson that will help increase my students understanding. For the most part the
communication and reception of the content was sufficient, but there is still improvement in
implementation that is essential for me to become a better teacher.
The biggest success we discovered while teaching this class was how valuable and advantageous
it can be to direct the preexisting motivation and energy of the students into the act of learning a
lesson. By revealing our own enthusiasm to teach, students were much more welcoming and
receptive to learn new ideas and remain engaged in class. The lesson became something they
were sincerely interested in, the activities a competition they wanted to win. Yet one aspect of
my teaching I need to continue to improve is my ability to be consistently energetic, animated,
and passionate with every class that I teach. My students deserve to have the same ardent teacher
no matter when they have my class during the day, and I recognize that I can only expect my
students to be as motivated and energetic as I am. The more I demonstrate my own interest in the
lesson, the more responsive they will be to my teaching.

7. What language teaching approach do you ascribe to and how have you articulated this
philosophy in your lesson?
I.

II.

For this lesson, a behaviorist philosophy combined with an analytical phonics approach to
language learning is the best way to thoroughly teach the content. The behaviorist philosophy
speaks towards the inclusion of rote learning and having the students continuously repeat the
correct pronunciation for vocabulary words. The short comprehensive quiz completed before
starting the Slap the Word game is an example of this philosophy. The exercise aids students in
recognizing the differentiation between phonemes and the patterns that can be found to
distinguish the various verbal sounds associated with them. The behaviorist philosophy is then
linked to an analytical phonics approach to language learning. This has students identify
phonemes in similar words and discuss the similarities and differences they have with other close
sounding phonemes. Having the entire class participate and give a TPR during the instructional
part of class demonstrates the benefits that this approach has to the comprehension of the lesson.
To teach this lesson we chose to employ a mixture of the behaviorist and cognitive philosophies
with a direct teaching approach that utilizes word-learning strategies. The behaviorist philosophy
is evidenced by the repetition of the vocabulary words in each activity that is completed. This is
coupled with the cognitive philosophy through the incorporation of teaching realistic context
alongside the memorization of vocabulary words, thus exposing students to their use in authentic
situations. Connecting the concept of knowing and understanding vocabulary words with the
presentation of how they are found outside of the classroom convincingly creates a
comprehensive and dynamic lesson.