Reflection 2

The Audiolinugal Method, is a method based on learning through repetition, dialogs and learning through imitation. The teachers goal is to make sure that the students learn the right way to speak English through repetition. By doing so, the students will learn what to say.

When I went to school we did the same thing. We repeated what the teacher said, over and over again. We also worked in pairs, while the teacher helped us do so. 

This approach is for some students a good approach, but for many students this approach can be a bit boring and not motivational. In my own experience, I found it to be a bit boring. As a student you want the teaching to be motivational and fun. That way it is easier to learn the language. In the beginning this was a fun exercise, but over time it can be a bit boring. I liked it when the teacher used different apporaches and drills. Both repetition, dialogs with my fellow students and imitating the teacher. By using what we learned from the repetition and imitation, we became better at communicating with each other, and we could eventually have a dialog with each other. 

Communicative approaches is a way for students to learn how the language is spoken. Knowing correct grammar and linguistics are very important, but it is also important to know how to use the language in dialog. Communicative approaches focus on the function of the language. With communicative language; learners have to have language knowledge and know how to use a language. When you know these two things, you will be able to communicate.

One communicative approach our teacher used was to tell your partner about your weekend. We where only aloud to talk English too each other. This was a really fun exercise for us, we did not know all of the words, but the teacher helped us when we where stuck. That way our English improved. 

Both Audiolingual method and communicative approaches where used by my English teacher when I was learning English. For me personally the apporoaches that worked the best was communicative approaches. I think the reason for this is that I loved speaking English, and I loved to try out new things. By using Audiolingual method, you repeat and imitate your teacher or a tape the teacher had. That was not a motivational method for me. By using the communicative method, our teacher let us try out the language. Play with the language and have fun with it. The grammar and linguistic was not perfect at the beginning, but we thought it was fun and we wanted to learn more. By learning more, my grammar and the linguistics was better. The teacher was there to help us and correct us when we needed to be corrected. That way we had fun while learning, so we wanted to learn more. 

My own experience is something I am focusing on in my teaching. I know what I did not like and what helped me learn English. You have to learn both grammar and linguistics, but there are different ways to do so. When teaching you have to know your students. What do your students respond to? What do they like? These two questions are very important to me. Even though you have to do a lot of different things, it is important for me, as a teacher, that my students are having fun while learning English. That way they want to learn, not just the fun things but also the boring part. For me it is important to try to make the boring part fun, and to make it relatable. If the students can relate and know why they are learning English, it will be more motivational for them to learn. And if you make it fun to learn, they will only want to learn more. 

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Reflection 1

The three principles written underneath are the three most important principles to me and my teaching at the time being. 

principle 2: Instruction needs to ensure that learners focus on meaning. 

Principle 4: Instruction needs to be predominantly directed at developing implicit knowledge of the L2 while not neglecting explicit knowledge. 

Principle 9: instructions need to take account of individual differences in learners. 

Principle 2: Instruction needs to ensure that learners focus on meaning. 

For the students to learn a language or new content, it is in my opinion that they need to see and know the meaning behind it, and the content needs to have meaning. Motivation is a keyword when teaching. When the students understand why they are learning something and they get the meaning behind it, they will be more motivated to learn the language or the content. When students learn English, which they need in order to communicate online and when they travel or meet people from all over the world, there is a lot of ways to teach. To teach students content while learning English is, in my opinion, the best way to learn. Of course, you also have to have focus on form, but the meaning will help the students with their motivation. If they have the motivation to learn the language, it is easier, in my opinion, to teach them the "boring" material. 

Principle 4: Instruction needs to be predominantly directed at developing implicit knowledge of the L2 while not neglecting explicit knowledge. 

Implicit knowledge is the knowledge that is built into our system. Information we already have. As a teacher, it is important for me to expand my student's implicit knowledge. That way they will have more information when they are moving forward with new information, that hopefully will be new implicit information. Some information has to be explicit, we can not know everything. Some things have to be looked up or researched. Still, in my teaching, I am trying to expand the implicit information. To get implicit information, the students have to practice. They have to repeat the information in a way that the information gets implicit, but it should still be interesting. 

Principle 9: instructions need to take account of individual differences in learners. 

In a classroom with 25 students, there are 25 individuals that learn in different ways. Your instructions and your teaching should reflect that. Not everyone takes information and instructions the same way. As a teacher, it is important to know your students in a way that you know how they learn and how they take instructions. Every student is different, as long as you take that into consideration, it will be much easier (and more difficult) to reach out to all of your students. Not just some of them, it is important for a teacher to make sure that every one of them is keeping up with the content.