Intervention point

My intervention point is lack of participation

Journal entry 1

The teacher was struggling to keep students focus on the activities they were asked to do. However, students were reluctant to do the first activity. Even though the activity was easy for them to do, they took too much time to do it.

Journal entry 2

The teacher wrote some exercises and then he wrote in a corner of the board: positive points. I have to say that before the teacher wrote that deep little phrase, students (most of them) were kind of reluctant to participate in the activity. 

Problem solve

Since the problem was detected in class observation (I did not apply the class but observed them), it would be required a set of steps in which each of them has a specific objective. Thus, the problem would not only be identified and described but also it would be addressed in terms of reflection on action. It means that according to this experience it is compulsory to come up with a series of phases to solve the problem.

Action plan: Action research

Step 1. Identification: Once the problem has been identified it is relevant to go back to the journal and identify the possible roots of it. Though, the problem is not only contextualized but also we can also pin point what are the causes of the problem.

Step 2. Survey implementation: in this phase a survey is going to be implemented so as to “hear students’ voices”. The questions would be addressed in the sense to get relevant information about the source of their lack of participation. Do you like to participate in class, why? Why not?  What are the activities you are more comfortable with? What kind of activities would you like the teacher applied in the classroom? Do you feel afraid of participating in front of your classmates? Why? Notice that the questions are made with two purposes, first: to have a wider knowledge of students’ lack of participation and second: to have a clear idea of the activities the teacher could apply to tackle the issue.

Step 3. Implementation: Once the teacher has detected the source and the possible solution for the issue through the survey outcomes, the next step would be the implementation of the techniques and activities that the teacher have thought of.

Step 4. Reflection: To know exactly if the implementation was successful, it is essential to write down a journal in which the teacher expressed what was the students’ behavior in the sense of the activity an if they were active at participating or not. 

Exploring teachers' beliefs

My beliefs

1.      “Language teaching has become in a “science” and people have worried to develop new approaches and techniques to get the most out of learners’ skills”.

 “Teachers have developed a bunch of theories and methods to make language learning as suitable as possible for every single person in the world”. (Excerpt from my metaphor)

“Hence, the role of teachers is to make the language learning process easier for them in terms of the variety of approaches and methods we can apply in the classroom to make it enjoyable”. (Excerpt from my metaphor)  

“The success of a foreign language students is equivalent to the effort that the teacher make in terms of the decisions he/she does when implementing the materials and tools in a EFL setting”.

“Sometimes we get used to the same classes, the same strategies that we do not innovate our practices”. (comment from Ana M. from my autobiography )

“The teacher started his class by recalling what they have learned in the previous class. The teacher wrote some exercises and then he wrote in a corner of the board: positive points. I have to say that before the teacher wrote that deep little phrase, students (most of them) were kind of reluctant to participate in the activity. Then, students started to become more active. This totally blow my mind. How can a little phrase be as relevant as it was, and how that phrase just turn around the whole class. This can be taken as a strategy for students to be motivated (for a praise) and to be active agents of the class. Moreover, the fact that the positive points were given in public raise students’ confidence and somehow self-steam.” (excerpt from my 3^rd journal entry)

2.      “When language teaching is taking place, we have to bear in mind the context in which it is happening”.

“The teacher was struggling to keep students focus on the activities they were asked to do. However, students were reluctant to do the first activity. Even though the activity was easy for them to do, they took too much time to do it. They did not express themselves about the classroom being hot, but I realized because they were waving their shirts to make themselves coolers”. (Excerpt from my 2^nd journal entry)

“Though, the sort of activities have to be well structured according to external issues students have namely: social class, cultural matters, parents relationships, etc”. (Excerpt from conceptualizing teaching questions)

“This is also reflected in our educational contexts, for instance, the way teachers and students interact, attitudes and behaviors as well as friendships and love in the classroom”.(a comment from Noryda  from my autobiography)

3.      “The particularities of each student might provide a wide range of information in terms of the abilities or drawbacks each students’ have”.

“As a compass is relevant for us to have a clear idea what students really want to learn taking advantage of their particular skills. It means that is compulsory for us to acknowledge what students feel more comfortable and confident with to take the most out of them in the sense of L2 learning”. (Excerpt from my metaphor)

“When teaching, learning does not necessarily happen, however learners are aware of the relevance of education, even if they think education is not worthwhile they somehow are reflecting and reflection is part of the learning process. Thus, the effect would be positive or negative according to the students’ particularities”. (Conceptualizing teaching)

4.       “Learning has convey the knowledge not to be static but dynamic, it has made that education, economy, technology, science, evolved in such fast way we do not realize yet”.

“Another fact was that in an oral (memorize a prayer) activity they were required to fulfill as a part of evaluation, was that a big percentage of the girls were using their cellphones to practice”. (excerpt from my 1^st journal entry)

“Finally, language learning must be taken not just as a mechanic or a rigid process. Learning is dynamic and language learning is not the exception”.

What sources have you derived those beliefs or assumptions from?

There are some things that we can assume through our experience in English teaching. Through time and experience, those beliefs are molded and most important I followed my English program teachers’ beliefs of teaching. Although they never talked about them explicitly, now I can clearly deduce they were teaching us not only language structures and theory but also they were shaping our teaching signature. Moreover, there is no need to cite researchers that have developed new techniques and approaches in terms of EFL language learning and teaching since it would probably take me more than 100 blogs to fill in with. Furthermore, in the sense of language learning as a dynamic process, Krashen (1981) stated that language learning is a dynamic process consisting of three stages, namely input, central processing and output. Thus, by combining those stages language is transformed in a dynamic process since it is shaped according to the L2 learner needs.

How would you challenge those beliefs?

Nowadays teachers must become more open-minded and try to fit in a world of constant change. Of course, language learning and teaching is not the exception for this premise. Undoubtedly, my experience as a teacher would test my practices in the classroom and my changing pedagogy with my students. By changing pedagogy, I mean that in order to get my students motivated and willing to learn EFL I must look for different strategies and approaches to be updated and to recognize what students feel more comfortable with. Moreover, as language learning is dynamic, teachers must be dynamic as well and this challenge is easy to surpass by trying not to do the same classes in the same order. For this not to happen, it is compulsory to be reflective, it is relevant to look back and change not only the things that we do wrong but also to modify the things that we do in a right way.   

Beliefs

English

It is not a top secret that English has become in the language that allows people to communicate with the outside world. Hence, it is a priority for people not only to learn the language but also to learn how to use it in context. Moreover, it has to be said that English is not only an isolated language, it is also about culture and behavior, it is about being open-minded and being somehow respected. From my perspective, English has given by some means power to society. That is to say that by learning English as a language people has learned to expand their boundaries in the sense of knowledge and for some people in an economic way (since the majority of the business made for foreign companies are held in English). So, we must not take English slightly, it is not only words, it is the language people has chosen to close the world boundaries.

Learning

Learning exists since the raise of the man as a human being. Our ancestors had to learn how to protect themselves from the danger, from the cold, they had to learn hot hunt, and how to use fire properly. They were the first “people” on earth they learned from experience. Learning from observation, learning by doing without any assistance. Though, this empiric knowledge and expertise passed from generation to generation creating another kind of learning. The learning we receive from someone that is expert in any field. The give us the steps we require to get to the top, to be successful at anything we want to be good at. Learning has convey the knowledge not to be static but dynamic, it has made that education, economy, technology, science, evolved  in such fast way we do not realize yet.

Teaching

By teaching we can say that is the process of providing knowledge that a particular person has. This knowledge can be acquired from an empiric person or more in a more formal way from school or university. However, for this to take place, the person is required to have some abilities to be able to give information as clear as possible. In education, it is called pedagogy. Pedagogy are the techniques, approaches, methods we use in a learning setting. Teaching also has to do with the methods and approaches people can use to be as innovative as possible. However, teaching is not just about to teach specific subjects, a good teaching goal is to teach apprentices to use that knowledge in particular situations. Teaching is about how to tackle possible issues not by giving them the explicit solution but by teaching them how to be resourceful.

Language teaching

Language teaching has become in a “science” and people have worried to develop new approaches and techniques to get the most out of learners’ skills. For this to come, they have done much research in terms of language teaching and learning. Hence, with the seen outcomes, we can think on what approaches or techniques are more suitable for our students. Likewise, when language teaching is taking place, we have to bear in mind the context in which it is happening. The particularities of each student might provide a wide range of information in terms of the abilities or drawbacks each students have. However, it is easier for use to tackle the issues L2 learners may have when learning English. Nonetheless, language skills is not only about students skills, as I mentioned before, it has to do with context in which the L2 is taking place. Thus, issues regularly come to light in a setting class namely, social class. To sum up, language teaching is a wide range of approaches, techniques, methodologies, etc. which we can take them as a support for students’ L2 success taking into account the particularities in which they are developing their language skills.           

Journals

Journal 1

This is an experience from an observed class with 8^th graders. When I first step in the classroom with my partner, students stood up, said hello and immediately started to pray the holly father. This make sense to me that students are committed with the language in the sense of memorizing the prayer and also the engagement with the L2 since all the students were active participants of the activity . Something that caught my attention was the fact that the classroom was comprised only by girls. This can be a relevant research in the sense of comparing girls and boys development skills in language learning and teaching. Furthermore, the girls are more outgoing and as a consequence they are more likely to perform activities in which they have to use their body (metalanguage). Though, the success of an L2 to happen is highly plausible.  

Another fact was that in an oral (memorize a prayer) activity they were required to fulfill as a part of evaluation, was that a big percentage of the girls were using their cellphones to practice. Some of them individually and some others in groups. I could realize that students that were working in groups were giving feedback each other and the ones who were working alone, they sometimes ask their partners for feedback as well. Hence, one can say that cellphones are new tools of becoming learning language more attractive and somehow more meaningful. In addition, grouping work is a relevant way for students to learn from each other. Even though they were not told to work in groups they feel that working in such way they could help each other.

Finally, it is seems to me that the teacher is an open-minded person since she allow students to make use of their devices. This is significant when language learning is taking place in terms of teacher development and students performance.   

Journal 2

Well, to start this entry I have to say that I observed the same teacher in the same grade but in a different group. Girls and boys composed this group and the environment was much more intense in the sense of behavior than the previous one. This experience will be addressed to the students behavior rather than the students language performance. First, to set the place, the class was at 2:00 o’clock, and for some reason the teacher had never been before at that time in regular basis. Students were pretty much tired and the heat was just unbearable. The classroom was wide short and the student range were between 32 to 35. Undeniable, that makes even harder the teacher’s job.

The teacher was struggling to keep students focus on the activities they were asked to do. However, students were reluctant to do the first activity. Even though the activity was easy for them to do, they took too much time to do it. They did not expressed themselves about the classroom being hot, but I realized because they were waving their shirts to make themselves coolers. repeatedly, the teacher called their attention and to stay focus on the topic she was trying to give, but they were not like having fun at all.

The teacher was surprised because of the behavior since she had told me that group was one of the best groups in which she teaches. Nevertheless, for me is not a surprise at all. Crowded and small classrooms make the teachers’ job in an almost impossible mission. The secretary of education does not care about having comfortable settings for students nor interested in diminished the amount of students per classroom.  

Journal 3

This is another experience from an observed class. The class was applied in a 7^th grade classroom. The teacher started his class by recalling what they have learned in the previous class. The teacher wrote some exercises and then he wrote in a corner of the board: positive points. I have to say that before the teacher wrote that deep little phrase, students (most of them) were kind of reluctant to participate in the activity. Then, students started to become more active. This totally blow my mind. How can a little phrase be as relevant as it was, and how that phrase just turn around the whole class. This can be taken as an strategy for students to be motivated (for a praise) and to be active agents of the class. Moreover, the fact that the positive points were given in public raise students’ confidence and somehow self-steam.  

The class continue with another activity, and the same strategy was applied. Students were willing to participate keenly. The pace of the class was extraordinary and sometimes it became sort of messy because all wanted to be in the positive points list. I asked my colleague how often he applied this kind of strategy to keep students focus on the topic. He told me that strategy is useful in terms of motivation and keep students under “control” in terms of behavior and that he applied that strategy quite often.

Summing up, I can realize how much relevance students give to certain things we do not pay attention to. However, this kind of methodology may have sort of drawbacks if we use it regularly. Giving an example, what if students do not work if they are not given any positive points. What if students work in class just because of the fact of being benefited with a praise? Some questions arise since this experience: to what extent is it good to give praises to students when performing tasks they are asked to do? What is the limit of giving praises? Is there another kind of reward we can implement besides positive points to motivate students?

Journal 4

This experience was due to a class I observed in a 10^th grade classroom conducted by the same teacher of my previous journal. This short experience is about how old “devices” are reluctant to be forgotten. The class started as a normal class, the teacher explained the activity they had to do, and the students (there were no more than 18 students) followed the instructions the teacher just had given them. I must say before I keep going, that nowadays students are technology fans, and they do not hesitate when it comes to use it if they have the chance to. As soon as the students began the activity they were asked to do, they immediately took out dictionaries , big ones dictionaries. I was shocked because even though they have their cellphones they preferred to use their “paper devices”. I really could not believe my eyes, they were actually looking up words in those old, grey pages dictionaries.

This experience was really attractive to me in the sense of why students would prefer paper dictionaries rather than their cellphones or tablets. What I regret the most, is about not having enough time to ask them why do they use their “boring paper-dictionaries” and not their cellphones. What was the principal fact of choosing their common dictionaries?  Is there any advantage of it?     

Conceptualizing Teaching

What do you usually do as teacher? With what kind of rationale?

I would like to start with a quote that really catch my attention, “the teacher’s primary role in the classroom is to function like a conduit, channeling the flow of information from one end of the educational spectrum”. And, that is exactly what a try to do in every single class I apply. My role is nothing but conducting my students to a new level of language level knowledge. Moreover, I expect my students not only to get “information” but also I expect them to use it in every single performance they do whether inside or outside the classroom. Though, the sort of activities have to be well structured according to external issues students have namely: social class, cultural matters, parents relationships, etc.   

What is your mind engagement like in the professional exercise of teaching?

The most important thing in terms of being professional is how much committed you are with your students and with your role as a teacher. Every teacher have to be engaged not only with his/her teaching but also they need to be engage with their professional development. That is to say, that we have to be in an updated mode since language education is dynamic, and as a dynamic entity, we have to catch up with the methods and techniques that are currently updated. Hence, my idea of being engaged with professionalism is nothing but to be faithful with your students in terms of well-structured materials, updated resources, take time to be reflective, and most important to be open-minded.

How would you characterize your professional, personal, and experiential knowledge of teaching?

I would say that every teacher has good experiences and those that we usually call bad experiences, those are the ones which we learn the most. My experiences in language teaching have allowed me to be who I am as a teacher. It has also help me to grow as a human being, since the first time we call ourselves teachers, we learn every day from our students, we learn how is to be in our learners shoes like, we learn how to be humble. Being professional is not just about getting graduated or getting an insignificant university certificated, it is about being society transformers. Moreover, professionalism is the way in which we behave in our field as teachers and as an integrated person outside the place we use to be teaching.

How do you see the relationship between theory, research, and practice?   

From my point of view, theory, research, and practice are linked each other. Each one differs from one another, however they could not exist without being related. First, Kumaravadivelu (2003) sets theory as a set of insights and concepts derived from another disciplines. It means that theory comes from previous studies and gathered information. Second, from the perspective of the same author, practice is a set of teaching and learning strategies. Thus practice comes from the theory and it is implemented and adopted by a teacher in an particular learning setting. without theory practice cannot exist since practice is the implementation of any theory, and from practice new theories come to light. Research, is a tool in which people can rely on to settle if a theory is suitable or accountable in any ground.

To what extent is there a cause – effect relationship between teaching and learning?

Unquestionably, there is a cause – effect when teaching and learning. Something in our students’ minds happens as a consequence when attending regular classes at school or in a daily live situation since teaching goes beyond of the school walls. Even though there is not learning, something hit their attention and of course the effect diverge depending on the student. When teaching, learning does not necessarily happen, however learners are aware of the relevance of education, even if they think education is not worthwhile they somehow are reflecting and reflection is part of the learning process. Thus, the effect would be positive or negative according to the students’ particularities.    

Autobiography

Long, long, long time ago on a dark and stormy night (that was what her mama said) a little kid was born. The lady could barely hold him in her hands, she was trembling and shaking because of the effort she made. A little light came in through the window and shone on the little well formed boy as the lady sobbed happily, that was the third time in her life she gave birth. His husband that was working by that time, was worried about what was going on in his home, he just could not resist anymore and went straight on to see and hug his newborn baby. That was the day Leonardo Diaz Pascuas came to the world.

Time was running as the little kid was either, his infancy among his two sisters at the grandpa’s house was coming through. The car wood, the swing in the tree, the ghost tales that his grandpa used to tell them just for freak the “$%&%$ out of them and the tricks the kid did to her siblings, were all part of his daily living. Every day he got some spanks just because he used to steal bananas from doña libraditas house. That was unfair, he said every time he got hit by his mom (his sisters were cooperators in every single crime he made but, he was the only one who “llevava del bulto”.)

He grew up a little bite more, and then his mom though it was time for him to go to the kinder garden. That was the most shocking thing he has ever had lived by his time. Day after day, his mom lived a real adventure to seek him out at the grandpa’s big garden, he used to hide himself in the chicken cage and even in the pigsty in order not to go to the kinder garden, but his mother always managed to find him so, he had to get used to it. In there, he met his first friend, the one who was falling in love with the same girl he had a crush on, ELIZABETH was her name, the mother of his friend and him sons. He was the lucky one because every single year in SAN PEDRO he used to dance with her the sanjuanero, he did not like it at all but, dancing around her, hold her hand, and almost give her a kiss behind the hat was a fact he just could not resist………..

Many days and nights went on, the family decided to move out to another house, good bye friends, ghosts and the swing in the tree, welcome new friends a new world. He entered to a primary school; he was not the best student, but neither the worst. The first time he made contact with English language, was the day he found a book with some verbs on it, the first verb was: to give; and take picture of this: all the time he wanted something he said “mami to give pan” or “mami to give huevos” and that was for a whole month. The primary school was about to finish, he was concerned about the fact he was going to join the high school (mainly because he was the shortest one on it, and probably people would make fun of him).

High school began, and a new life too, another new friends, new subjects he had never heard before (English). At the beginning, He did not do well in his studies, but he made an effort and could go through every year grade. In the third year (eight grade) he failed the course and consequences with it showed up, new classmates, but a new issue as well (his father decided to take him away from the school). The problem was overcame and his passion for this foreign language was growing inside him. He just loved the way his teacher talked (although he did not know the teacher had a terrible pronunciation). He started to learn lyrics, and again, he was just unbearable singing hotel California every single day. He remembered all the things he did on high school the day he got graduated. Sitting on the park bench with his friends, he started to think what his life was going to be from that moment on.

Five years passed on, and sitting on the park bench where he used to hang with his friends out, worried about he had lost his way, a flashback came to his mind, the day he found the book and the first verb he learned to give. That was the day he decided to learn English and become a teacher.

His dream came true, he enrolled to the English language program at the university; at first, it was hard for him because it had been 5 years since he had finished his secondary school. University, a big word, a really big word, it is the monster of education, it is something everybody fights for and he was there among a bunch of people: walkers, smokers, laughing in despair, feeling what was to be one of the “lucky” in the education system. He met his friends there, he met love, friendship, partnership, he met parties, he met deception but most important, he met happiness. Tough times nocked at his door. His mom had been diagnosed with cancer and his world fell apart. He thanked lord, cancer was overcome, it was ripped off and his sadness with it. Many months passed by and the day of his graduation had finally arrived, his friends and he sitting and looking at each other with a smile in their faces is something that he will never forget. Memories just went crazy in his mind, his eyes almost wiped little tears down his face, tears of happiness and satisfaction, his heart was beating, and at the end, the feeling of proud filled his spirit and soul. He lived joyfully the next years, he met real and true love, but at the same time gloom and melancholy. Now reading this, I think he could realize how much he has done for his life, how much he has lost, how much he has got. And the conclusion he made is to live your life as if every day were your last hours on earth: smile, dance, stop to take a deep breath, travel, get wet under the rain, love with all your heart, cry, but when you do it, cry hard perhaps your soul get drowned under the tears you have not cried, cook,  ….. LIVE.

Metaphor

The teaching and learning of any language has become somehow in a science. Thus, teachers have developed a bunch of theories and methods to make language learning as suitable as possible for every single person in the world. More than teachers, we are nothing but a compass which helps students no to lose their track of the road, not to get sink in a sea of knowledge. As a compass is relevant for us to have a clear idea what students really want to learn taking advantage of their particular skills. It means that is compulsory for us to acknowledge what students feel more comfortable and confident with to take the most out of them in the sense of L2 learning. Also, it must be said that the acquisition of a foreign language must be taken as a ladder that take language learners through a series of steps, one harder than the previous one. Hence, the role of teachers is to make the language learning process easier for them in terms of the variety of approaches and methods we can apply in the classroom to make it enjoyable.   

Likewise, in order to make learners become successful in an L2 we must be a kind of pole to support them anytime. The success of a foreign language students is equivalent to the effort that the teacher make in terms of the decisions he/she does when implementing the materials and tools in a EFL setting. Thus, the teachers’ support is not only addressed in the sense of cheering learners up (motivation) but also to support them by employing appropriate resources in the language learning process.

Learners are kites, let them fly free, let them move in the direction they sometimes want because they are the core of the process. We are the wires that monitor those kites in the direction we want and we are the ones who can make students fly up further or down closer. From time to time, we feel our kites are going down to the ground, and it is our duty to look for the right stream of wind that allow students to go beyond their knowledge boundaries.

Finally, language learning must be taken not just as a mechanic or a rigid process. Learning is dynamic and language learning is not the exception. The more meaningful resources we apply the more is likely for students to be motivated and engaged with the language. EFL is not only about words, it is about metalinguistic issues namely mimics, signs and face expressions, it not about a book, a board, and a teacher, is about enjoying and having fun. It is in our hands to make language accountable for our students.