Transcript 슬라이드 1 - Sookmyung TESOL MA

Fall 2010 Sookmyung Women’s University Masters Degree of TESOL
Teaching Portfolio
Lee Jung Ok
Table of Contents
Introduction
p3
1. Personal and Professional Documents
p 4 ~ p 11
1.1 Curriculum Vitae
1.2 Teaching Philosophy
1.3 Certificates
1.4 TESOL MA courses I have taken
1.5 Letter of Recommendation
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.1 Introduction to GEP class
2.2 Syllabus of GEP class
2.3 GEP Teaching – Week 4
2.3.1 Lesson plans
2.3.2 Classroom activities & student work
2.3.3 Reflective journal
2.4 GEP Teaching – Week 12
2.4.1 Lesson plans
2.4.2 Classroom activities & student work
2.4.3 Reflective journal
3. Action Research
p5
p6~p7
p8~p9
p 10
p 11
p 12 ~ p 30
p3
p 14 ~ p 17
p 18 ~ p 24
p 25 ~ p 30
p 31 ~ p 49
3.1 Introduction to Action research
3.2 Action Research Paper
Epilogue
p 32
p 33 ~ p 49
p 50
2
Introduction
This portfolio is designed to show how I have developed myself as an English
teacher in and out of the classroom.
The evidence in this portfolio will give you a chance to glimpse into the
processes I have been through in my previous work and during Sookmyung MA
Tesol Program.
Becoming a professional teacher and evolving myself as a mentor for my
students is surely a long way I should go along in my life not only for
intellectual knowledge but also understanding the development of human
beings. This portfolio will demonstrate the viewer how I think and work for that.
3
1. Personal and Professional Documents
This Section is all about myself as an
English Teacher and my view of teaching.
 Personal and Professional Documents





Curriculum Vitae
Teaching Philosophy
Certificates
TESOL MA courses I have taken
Letter of Recommendation
4
1. Personal and Professional Documents
1.1 Curriculum Vitae
Jungok, Lee
xxxxx@dreamwiz.com
Korea
OBJECTIVE
To show and check myself as a developing and evolving teacher
EDUCATION
Mar. 2008- Presesnt MA in Tesol, Sookmyung Women’s University
Mar. 1989 - Feb. 1993 BA in English Literature,
University
EMPLOYMENT
Mar. 2004- Present
Mar.2003-Dec.2003
Mar.1996-Aug.1998
English Teacher, Foreign Language Dept.
School
English Teacher, Kids club in Hwa-jung
English Teacher, Gwak’s English Institute in Myungdong
Duties as an English teacher
•Developing the curriculums
•Teaching about 26 students in Grade 1 to 8
•Class conference with each homeroom teacher
•Consulting students and parents about English learning
•Evaluating the curriculum every year and upgrade it
•Writing the reports about each student
•Interpreting and translating for foreign visitors to school
Dec.1994-Jan.1996
Translator and interpreter, Fiordland travel in New Zealand
QUALIFICATION & TRAINING
Aug. 2010
May 2009
May 2005
2004 ~2006
(900 hours)
Germany
Feb. 1993
Mate Rating training workshop in Sookmyung University
Asia Pacific Waldorf Teachers’ conference in Philippines
Asia Pacific Waldorf Teachers’ conference in Taiwan
Waldorf Education Certificate
Korean Anthroposophy Association and Stuttgart Waldorf Teachers’ college in
2nd Grade Regular Secondary Teacher License (English)
Ministry of Education and Human Resources
5
1. Personal and Professional Documents
1.2 Teaching Philosophy
Fun and Joy of Learning English
As a learner, I loved learning English since I first encountered English. It was a new,
fresh, different, and fun experience for me. English gave me confidence at school
and naturally led me to major in English and become an English teacher. I want to
help my students experience the joy, have the fresh view of the world, and get the
skills they can use to communicate with the world through English learning as I did.
Teaching is not always easy but rather energy-consuming. Teachers are required to
be considerate, reflective, and responsible, so I want to keep my principles in mind
on my teaching journey, while upgrading them through reflecting on my teaching so
that I don’t cloak myself in its comfort.
Teaching Principles
The principles I have in my class lie in three interconnected areas and influence each
other. They are the Student-centered, Cooperative learning, and Function-based
approaches.
Motivation and Student-Centered
One of the most powerful elements to make learning effective and active must be
the students’ internal motivations. To allow this to happen, I like to put my students
at the center of the learning. For this, I administer some surveys to understand their
interests and concerns about the curriculum. I also try to meet them as often as
possible through written letters, e-mails or journals regularly. At the end of the
semester, I always have some review time over the course of the semester. These
activities with them help me understand them better and allow me to apply the
improved methods to the next class.
6
1. Personal and Professional Documents
1.2 Teaching Philosophy
Cooperative and Communicative Learning
Cooperative learning is also putting the student at the center of the class. Pair work
and group work give much more chances for students to practice what they already
know or what they wanted to experiment with based on their background knowledge.
These kinds of activities don’t allow them to stay as passive onlookers but stimulate
them to move and use the language. Role plays are also good activities to realize
cooperative and communicative learning. Through role plays and dramas, students
interact with each other, share situations, negotiate, and solve problems they face,
together through communication. They are real performers, and are not just listeners.
These cooperative, but not competitive activities facilitate students’ learning and the
feedback from peers also gives students a very good source from which to make them
changes. However, a common pitfall teachers should be careful to avoid is forcing
heavy interaction from the students from the beginning. At first, they can have time
to observe and get small roles to get used to the atmosphere of cooperative and
communicative surroundings. Also, teachers should give various ways for shy and
introverted students to participate such as pantomiming and being a passer-by with
a humorous or fun character.
Function-based approach
The function-based approach makes the lesson come to life. The situations should be
real, understandable, and interesting to students in order to stimulate their motivation.
Real social situations with authentic texts can awaken the passive students and keep
them at the center of the lesson. This gives students the chances to really act, listen,
and day-dream. Therefore my class has many real tasks that are given to the students
to solve with their friends, such as making their graduation trip schedule, helping some
friends’ shopping, discussing their cultural night events, etc. with presentations.
A Helper and a Friend
With these primary principles, I would like to move forward as a teacher. Along the
way, I know that I can continue to learn a lot from my students as well. What one
learns from their students is the real beauty of teaching. It is said that he who speaks
two languages possesses two souls. I hope my students can gain wider and deeper
views and thoughts of their lives and world through English learning and I would
willingly like to be the helper and friend on their journey.
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1. Personal and Professional Documents
1.3 Certificates
8
1. Personal and Professional Documents
1.3 Certificates
9
1. Personal and Professional Documents
1.4 TESOL MA Courses I have taken
Certificate Program (1 semester)
2006-1
Methodology I – Listening & Reading
Second Language Acquisition for EFL Teachers
Elective courses (3 semesters)
2008-1
2008-2
2010-1
Learner-Centered Teaching
Human Learning and Cognition
Discourse Analysis
Children’s Psychology and Literacy Development
Teaching Writing
Second Language Learning Theories
Final Option (1 semester)
2010-2
Practicum I – GEP class
Practicum II – Action research and portfolio
10
1. Personal and Professional Documents
1.5 Letter of Recommendation
11
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
This Section is all about my teaching
experiences through GEP class.
 Teaching Practices in GEP class



Introduction to GEP class
Syllabus of GEP class
Lesson plans / Reflective Journals
12
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.1 Introduction to GEP class
The primary objective of the GEP II course is to give the students an opportunity to
develop skills and strategies for global writing proficiency in English. This course, in
effect, will also focus on developing the skills necessary for attaining an acceptable
score on the MATE Writing Test and will be linking reading with writing skills.
The basic philosophy underlying the course is that meaningful practice generated in
an environment of facilitative feedback is the most efficient way of developing
communicative competence. As a result, in this class, each student will be generating
large amounts of language which will be closely monitored. Each student will be
given help and feedback on a continual basis.
During the last semester in Tesol MA in Sookmyung , I had GEP class as a teaching
group and helping group to Sookmyung university students. I met 27 students every
Thursday night from 7:50 to 10:30 sometimes as a teacher and sometimes as a friend
especially for my three little sisters in my group. We also met through on-line writing
board. I joined them in their journey of English learning for 15 weeks. I tried to help
their English writing but I was also a student in GEP class learning about English
learners and learning about co-operation with my colleagues.
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2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.2 Syllabus of GEP class
Stephen van Vlack
Sookmyung Women’s University
Graduate School of TESOL/General English Program
GEP II - Writing and Reading (영어쓰기와읽기)
Syllabus - Fall 2010
Syllabus - Fall 2010
GEP II - Writing and Reading (영어쓰기와 읽기)
Week 1; September 2
Introduction to the course, persons and materials involved.
*Group 1 teaches GEP - ICE BREAKING ACTIVITIES
In this the first week of class we are going to try to get to know each other through the medium of
English and some basic reading and writing. We are going to focus on the simple functions related to
introductions and personal information embedded within the forms of highly formulaic presentations
of information. Fun is to be had by all.
Homework: Go to the Practicum/GEP website and checkout the site. Do the writing homework for week
1. This is posted on the homework assignment board.
Week 2; September 9
Student survey
Sample Writing Test (Preliminary test)
Student groups
MATE - Task 1
*Group 2 teaches GEP – GROUP BONDING
This week we focus on getting the students to make sentences to inform about themselves personally.
The level of the writing will focus on meaningful listing and sentence creation.
Homework: To be announced.
Week 3; September 16
MATE Writing - Task 1
*Group 3 teaches GEP - 1st time
For this week and the next few weeks we be working on the basic component of composition - the
paragraph. We do this first by working on basic paragraphs and their structure through the here and
now. Students will be writing about concrete, here and now, topics of a highly personal nature. That is
they will be writing highly contextualized memos in order to make excuses and/or offer an explanation.
Homework: To be announced.
14
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.2 Syllabus of GEP class
Week 4; September 23 (Holiday – Class to be rescheduled)
MATE Writing - Task 2
**Group 4 teaches GEP – 1st time – 1st Videotape
This week we take a quick look at writing about highly personal and familiar topics for the purpose of
informing or giving advice in paragraphs in the form of an email. The level of formality is again, rather
low, but the writing is expected to be more carefully structured and somewhat longer than that we did
in the previous week.
Homework: To be announced.
Week 5; September 30
MATE Writing - Task 2
This week we are going to focus on writing descriptive emails composed of essentially one main
paragraph. Descriptive writing can entail descriptions of people, places, objects, or processes and as
such form an important mode in many different and varied instances of writing.
*Group 1 teaches GEP – 1st time
Homework: To be announced.
Week 6; October 7
MATE Writing - Task 2
*Group 2 teaches GEP – 1st time
For the next two weeks we will be working on developing skills in writing narrative paragraphs, but
with some elements of presentations thrown in. This week we will be working on familiar, personal
topics in the narratives we will be writing. It is important to note that while few of us are ever going to
be professional story writers, narratives play an important role in many different types of writing.
Homework: To be announced.
Week 7; October 14
MATE Writing - Task 2
**Group 3 teaches GEP - 2nd time - 1st VIDEOTAPE
In the second week of linking essays and presentations through narratives we will try to work with
topics that are less familiar and hence much more difficult. The trick here is to accurately describe
while retaining comprehensibility and suitable accuracy and much of this is achieved through careful
organization.
Homework: Prepare diligently for the Midterm Exam.
Week 8; October 21
Midterm Exam
*Group 4 teaches GEP - MIDTERM EXAM
After the midterm we will take some time after the exam to engage in a little review by doing some
fun communicative writing practice.
Homework: To be announced.
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2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.2 Syllabus of GEP class
Week 9; October 28
MATE Writing - Task 2
**Group 1 teaches GEP – 2nd time – 1st VIDEOTAPE
This week, we turn to the writing of specific types of essays. We will also be moving away for very
personal topics to those which are less known and more content-based. This week we will focus on
formal letter writing. The writing will, therefore, be situational but the situation will not be personal or
familiar.
Homework: To be announced.
Week 10; November 4
MATE Writing - Task 2
**Group 2 teaches GEP – 2nd time – 1st VIDEOTAPE
While much of what we have been doing in this course to date involves dealing with familiar
information of some sort, this week we start to work with more formal and abstract types of
information. This week is therefore important as a transition to the abstract from the concrete and is
also because it is stereotypical of task 2 of the MATE Writing test. We will focus on describing graphs
and other kinds of visual representations of complex meaning.
Homework: To be announced.
Week 11; November 11
MATE Writing - Task 2/3
**Group 3 teaches GEP – 3rd time - 2nd VIDEOTAPE
This week we jump into writing opinion essays, one of the most important genres for students taking
the MATE. This week we will jump into this by looking at topics that are more personal and familiar.
Homework: To be announced.
Week 12; November 18
MATE Writing - Task 3/2
**Group 4 teaches GEP – 2nd time – 2nd VIDEOTAPE
This week we look at writing effective comparison and/or contrast paragraphs/essays. The most
important element here is in the organization of the information to be presented along parallel points
and specific ordering practices.
Homework: To be announced.
Week 13; November 25
MATE Writing - Task 3/2
**Group 1 teaches GEP – 3rd time – 2nd VIDEOTAPE
This week we take a look at writing about a well-structured opinion paragraph. The trick here is finding
not only enough but the best type of possible support. The support is everything here thus the
planning part is very important. This will give us an opportunity to go back and review a lot of what
we did in the beginning of the course as relates to planning and gathering ideas.
Homework: To be announced.
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2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.2 Syllabus of GEP class
Week 14; December 2
MATE Writing - Task 3
**Group 2 teaches GEP - 3rd time – 2nd Videotape
This week we are look at persuasive essays. This kind of writing can be a lot of fun but is also tricky.
There is a fine line between what is persuasive and what is pushy. Doing this requires both the use of
specific grammatical structures on the micro level as well as specific macro level structures.
Homework: Study for the final.
Week 15; December 9
Final Exam
*Group 3 teaches GEP - FINAL EXAM
Let’s have a little party or do something fun after the final exam.
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2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.3 GEP Teaching – Week 4
2.3.1 Lesson plans
Topic:
Healthy Well-being Life
Functions:
Giving advice in a paragraph form
Objectives:
By the end of the class, students should be able to…
• Use modal verbs
• Use proverbs, vocabulary, terms and phrases related to health
• Form advising sentences
• Compose an advising paragraph
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2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.3.1 Lesson plans
Lesson
Process
Assignment
Check-up
Activity 1
Activity
Time
8:00~

Questions & Answers

-
Evaluation of ‘Well-being’ lifestyle
Complete the given checklist in pair
Add the scores of each member to
find the group score
8:10~
Present the result in graph
8:40
Make sentences that best describe the
group’s condition
-
8:10
Grouping
Big sibling’s
role
7 Groups
Check-up
Pair interview
7 Groups
Whole class
Explain
instruction,
vocabulary
and
guide
the process
7 Groups
Individual
7 Groups
Whole class
Guide the
collectors to
compose
proper
sentences
(short break)

Activity 2
-
Wisdom Master
Provide selected problems to each
group
8:40
Receive and give advice
List up gathered advice and choose ~
9:30
best 3 for your group’s problem
Present
Select the ‘Wisdom Master’ of the class
BREAK
Warming-up

Watch a video clip
7 Groups
Activity 3

-
1P & 3A, Peer counseling
write your own problem
Circulate within group
Choose the most helpful advice
present to class
Individual
7 Groups
Whole class
facilitator

Write an email letter in paragraph(s),
giving advices to your friend who
needs help
Individual
Check-up
Writing
Assignment
19
~
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.3.2 Classroom activities & student work
Evaluation of ‘Well-being’ lifestyle
Students pair up and evaluate how well-being the partner is by interviewing each other
with a checklist and discuss the results of the group members. Finally each group
composes two sentences that best describe their problematic conditions and present
them with the graph uploaded by teaching group according to the result of the survey.
Number of checked problems
80
21
70
60
Spiritual
24
14
21
34
40
30
32
0
Spiritual
Mental
Physical
15
English
Masters
14
32
15
25
14
13
34
20
10
24
14
50
24
34
15
15
9
Dream
Fighters
21
34
24
Young
Senior
24
14
34
Turtle
Sisters
21
34
9
20
Physical
12
28
Chicken &
Beer
14
13
28
Rainbow
Lion
25
15
15
Mental
25
SoonDoobo
o Sky
24
12
25
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.3.2 Classroom activities & student work
Wisdom Master
Half of the students in a group are advice collectors and the other half are advisors. All
the advices are written in sentence level and each group present the best three wisdoms
and select a ‘wisdom master’ among them. Students can practice to make advising
sentences using some modal verbs.
21
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.3.2 Classroom activities & student work
1P&3A Peer Counselling
Students write down their main concern or problem in 2~3 full sentence forms and
get some advice in a paragraph form from the other members of the group and
share the most helpful advice with others. In this activity students can compose an
advising sentences.
P: The problematic condition
you are experiencing lately
A: I think you are feeling…
If I were you I would…
I hope you will get better by…
The effects of the problem in
your life at the moment
A: I think you are feeling…
A: I think you are feeling…
If I were you I would…
I hope you will get better by…
If I were you I would…
I hope you will get better by…
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2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.3.3 Reflective Journals
The first time as a leading teacher. My group, group 4’s topic was Healthy Well-being
Life and the function was Giving advice in a paragraph form. Julie and I prepared
three activities, Activity 1. Evaluation of Well-being Lifestyle : checklist, interview,
evaluate each group’s physical, mental, and spiritual well-being using graphs,
sentences describing the group’s condition. Activity2. Wisdom Master : Get as much
advice as possible for each group’s problematic condition and choose the wisdom
master. Activity3. Peer counseling : Reflect own individual problem and get advice
from the members in the group. Each activity was followed by a presentation.
For Activity one, some of the checklists were not clear to the students.
They felt confused about the negative questions and some unfamiliar words. We
should have checked that more carefully and put them in the reading assignments.
For Activity 2, since there were some absentees, big siblings had to join as advisors.
Students were confused about who is just a helper and who is an advisor so they
were wandering around sometimes looking for where to go and who is available. We
could have made some name cards for advisors. For Activity 3. Even if it seemed to
be the similar activity as activity 2, it surely helped students reflect on themselves and
write focusing on the content. Which means we gave them the real situations with
some guidelines such as the expressions for detailed description and for useful modal
verbs they can use.
Overall, I feel it was good for students to feel some reasons why they
have to write and present with those topics but each activity was a bit long. Next
time we might try four activities more speedy and dynamic. One thing we overlooked
was that we didn’t prepare power point for basic instructions. We thought our oral
instructions might be clear enough but in reality, when they didn’t finish all the work
at the same time, some of them couldn’t focus on instructions. In that case they need
a guideline to follow.
I realized again the important roles of big siblings in this kind of taskbased and communicative activities. We as big siblings all need to be much more
awakened and ready to help them. We also need to know the appropriate line where
to go and where to stay for making students more active and involved.
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2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.3.3 Reflective Journals
As a leading teacher today, I was nervous so sometimes I had some
problems to get involved dedicatedly and selflessly during the class. Especially at the
beginning, when I was stepping aside, I was just watching the students, not helping
them. I wasn’t awakened enough at that moment but later on I became more natural
visiting each group and talking with students and big siblings.
Not only the students but also I are learning the teamwork and learn
from peers. I appreciate all the big siblings and my special partner, Julie.
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2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.4 GEP Teaching – Week 12
2.4.1 Lesson plans
Topic:
Eat, Taste & Compare
Functions:
Writing effective comparison / contrast paragraphs and essays
Objectives: By the end of the class, students should be able to…




Use comparative verbs
Use vocabulary, terms and phrases related to cooking and
food
Form comparing sentences
Compose an effective comparison essays
25
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.4.1 Lesson plans
Lesson
Process
Activity
Time
Assignment
Review reading & writing assignments
Check-up
Activity 1
< What’s in your mouth?>
-n groups, all the members are blindfolded
except for the big sibling
-Teachers give out 2 flavor snacks (covered) to
each group
-The big siblings help their sisters to taste each
snack by asking the taste, shape and texture of
the snack
-Each member describes what they taste by the
food adjectives they learned in the reading
assignment.
-Members unfold the cover and discover what
they have tasted and review the adjectives using
two column table
-Two groups come out and present the adjectives
they wrote for each snack
Activity 2
<Compare and find Ds and Ss>
-Give out other contrasting snacks to groups.
-Students taste different snacks and compare the
tastes, shapes, colors, texture and origins.
-In a given table, students fill up the similarities
and differences of each snack in sentence forms
-Some conjunctions, comparative and superlative
forms of adjectives and adverbs are given
10min
8:00
~
8:15
(15m)
Grouping
Groups
Groups
8:15
~
8:45
(30m)
<Make your own hotdog~~!> (Break)
-Present the ingredients and instruction on the screen
-Display buns, grilled sausages and condiments (tomato ketchup, mustard and relish)
26
BS’s role
Check
Help tasting
process and
help the use
of
vocabulary
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.4.1 Lesson plans
Lesson
Process
Activity
Time
Grouping
Activity 3
<Open up a restaurant in Chung-pa>
-Each group designs a restaurant to be opened
around Sookmyung University.
-Write about ideal features of the restaurant in 9:00
categories:
~
-Brainstorm each idea with a group members and 9:30
write in full sentence forms
-Using magazine scrapping and adding drawings,
present your group’s dream restaurant to class.
6 Groups
Activity 4
<Café Chungpa Vs. Café Ba-Ba-Reeba>
-Introduce the most highly rated restaurant in
Chicago with its reviews, menus and website.
-Write its features in sentence forms
-With the above comparison points, write a full
paragraph that compares the two restaurants.
-Add topic sentence and conclusion.
-Switch writings with other groups and go
through peer revision
6 Groups
Pair up for
peer
review
Writing
Sookmyung University <International Food Fair>
Assignment -Jajangmyun vs. Spaghetti
27
9:30
~
10:00
~
10:20
BS’s role
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.4.2 Classroom activities & student work
What’s in your mouth?
In groups, all the members are blindfolded except big siblings, eat and taste the
given two snacks and students are asked about the taste, texture, and shape. The
students can practice their vocabularies(adjectives) to describe some food.
Compare and Find Differences and Similarities
Students are given two kinds of cereal and asked to talk about the differences and
similarities between the two and write down them in sentence forms using some
conjuctions, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs for
comparing.
28
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.4.2 Classroom activities & student work
Open up a restaurant in Chung-pa
Students are asked to design own restaurant near Sook-Myung University using
some categories – location, design, style, menu, price range, special services, and
occasions. Students brainstorm each idea with group members and write in full
sentence forms. Using magazine scrapping and adding drawings, students present
own group’s dream restaurant to class.
Café Chungpa vs. Café Ba-Ba-Reeba
Students compare their own dream restaurant and Ba-Ba-Reeba, the most highly
rated restaurant in Chicago. With the comparison points, students write a full
paragraph that compares the two restaurants focusing on topic sentences and
detailed supporting ideas. They switch writings with other groups and go through
peer revision and present. .
29
2. Teaching Practices in GEP class
2.4.3 Reflective Journals
It was the second teaching for my group in GEP class with the topic of food to have
them practice comparison and contrast paragraphs and essays. Every time I stand in
front of the students I feel kind of pleasant nervousness and excitement with some
burdens. I had the same feeling this time again and the class went okay overall and
it was a good experience and learning for me as a teacher too.
The topic, food, was interesting to motivate the students in the first place and the
organization of the lesson was good for students to practice from vocabulary,
through sentences, essay draft, and writing the final in the end. However, the time
arrangement of the whole lesson didn’t go as I expected. Activity 1 and 2 were
vocabulary and sentence level activities as a warm-up and activating their schemata
but it took longer time than we planned. It took a long time in tasting all the food
for them to talk and write about them. That caused the shorter time for the next
actual main activities so we didn’t have enough time for revision and feedback and
we had to be in a hurry to wrap up the essay. The teaching group needs to be more
careful in time arrangement for the whole harmonious and organized lesson.
One more thing we should have considered more was the materials the students
tasted. My teaching partner, Julie and I thought and talked a lot for that but our
snacks were a bit short for good comparison and contrast, I guess. Something more
similar but different enough to bring their rich vocabulary and interest were needed.
I hope their experience with the food was memorable and helpful for their writing
and their English studying journeys and left as good reinforcements in their longterm memory.
30
3. Action Research
This Section is all about Action Research
conducted in GEP class under the title of
what strategies are the most helpful for
boosting students’ confidence.
 Action Research


Introduction to Action research
Action Research Paper
31
3. Action Research
3.1 Introduction to Action research
The basic idea behind this action research project is to try to glean information about
our teaching from the student’s point of view in a somewhat more empirical nature.
The focus here, following the action research paradigm, is to analyze elements of
classroom teaching and to see how such elements could be improved. This is all
about problem solving and making our teaching better.
Starting from our concerns about the students in GEP class, we observe, do the
survey, suggest remedies to the problem, and have discussion for better teaching. All
the processes here are to become more responsive and insightful teacher to our
students.
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3. Action Research
3.2 Action Research Paper
The Most Effective Strategies on
how to Promote Students’ Confidence in English
Kim Mi-hyang, Lee Jung-ok, Nam Jee-ye
Sookmyung Women’s University TESOL Master’s Degree Fall
I. Introduction
General English Program II course at Sookmyung Women’s University, hereafter GEP,
involves the students in a variety of reading, writing, and presentation related
activities focused on meaning and purpose. The objectives of the GEP are to give the
students an opportunity to develop strategies for writing proficiency in English and
the skills necessary for attaining an acceptable score on the Multimedia Assisted Test
of English Writing Test, hereafter MATE, and to link reading with writing skills.
Students are expected much of the in-class interactions which will improve their
reading, speaking, and listening skills as well as their writing skills through
communicative and interactive activities. The students of GEP are assigned in 9
groups of 3 members with a group leader. Most of the undergraduate students are
seniors who have full time jobs and are situated in a stressful circumstance due to
the pressure to get best grade for the graduation. The group leaders, graduate
students in their final semester of TESOL MA program at Sookmyung Women’s
University, are called ‘big siblings’ who play roles as facilitators who guide group
members to follow the right track and encourage them to enjoy the class. They also
teach the whole class as a team of two or three in turns under the supervision of the
professor.
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II. Identification of a concern
We found a concern that the students in GEP class seem to have difficulties in
expressing their ideas in English. According to our observation, students who were
silent, shy, and inactive not only in a formal classroom discourse but also even in an
informal small talk during the break time, showed frustration through their body
movements and facial expressions. In the classroom which asks all the students speak
only in English, some of them even expressed the fear or hatred of English when they
are asked to interact with others in order to complete the tasks assigned to the
group. The findings from interviews with the other big siblings also convinced us that
most of the students from each group are not confident enough to express their
opinions in class.
Furthermore, according to the results of a student needs survey, half of the students
received almost a score of over 800 on TOEIC, which indicates they have good control
of English in listening and reading comprehension (Survey question number 5,
appendix 1).
The results of the survey regarding self-confidence, however,
demonstrate rather contrasting implications. 16 out of 27 students marked they are
poor at English and only 2 out of 27 marked they are good at English (Survey
question number 15, appendix 1). This indicates that they have relatively low
confidence about their English proficiency compared to the scores of English tests
that they have taken such as TOEIC, TOEFL, TEPS (Survey question number 5). In
addition survey question number 19 describing students’ attitude toward English and
their confidence (Survey question number 19, appendix 1). For example, one
comment responded that “I am afraid that I might be not helpful to my group
members.” another student wrote that “I want to cry every Thursday due to this class.
(I have a lot of stress about this class.)”. The other response was “I don’t like
presentation.”
Students’ low confidence seems to make them less involved and less motivated in
GEP class where pursues communicative and interactive task-based activities
throughout the whole lesson. In this regard, it is necessary to highlight how we can
assist GEP students to boost up their confidence in English.
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Self-confidence is regarded as one of the most significant variables in second
language learning. It provides learners with the motivation and energy to become
positive about their own learning. It also creates the drive in them to acquire the
targeted language, enjoy the learning process, and experience real communication.
“At the heart of all learning is a person’s belief in his or her ability to accomplish the
task” (Atsuta, 2003). Lack of belief in one’s ability hinders him from achieving the task,
pursuing a targeted language accomplishment. Moreover, it is widely believed that
once students gain self-confidence, it progressively expands, in conjunction with
experiencing success and satisfaction as well as good relationships. Learners’ belief
that they indeed are fully capable of accomplishing a task is at least partially a factor
in their eventual success in attaining the task. (Brown, 2001, p. 62)
The results in the survey conducted at the beginning of GEP class led us to believe
students’ matters that cause low confidence in English can be depicted as three
dimensions: lack of experience in communicative and interactive learning, fear about
making mistakes and keeping silent about the feelings of fear. The first thing this
study focus on as the reason of students’ low confidence is that they may be
unfamiliar to the ways of the GEP classes in which they are expected to be much
more active to produce the target language all the time such as speaking and writing
in English. They may have had classes which were more receptive rather than being
productive or communicative. Another reason of their low confidence seems to be
related to a common feature of second language learners: fear of making errors.
When second language learners produce the target language, they generate
‘interlanguages’ (Selinker, 1972), errors or mistakes, which are regarded as the
developmental stage of second language learning. The learners, however, usually
consider their errors as embarrassment to avoid. Moreover, we also can assume one
more cause of their low confidence has been derived from absence of sharing their
feelings, fear of making mistakes or errors in communication, with their peers or big
siblings. Learners who express the emotions that they feel from their flaws to others
may relieve their distress because they can discover that most of second language
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learners would follow the development of ‘interlangauges’.
The goal of our action research is to find out if the roles of big siblings are helpful for
students’ self-confidence and what kind of strategy is the most effective for students
to promote their confidence and result in more effective language learning. At the
end of the course, we expect to see the students being active and confident, not
hesitant in negotiating to solve problems with assistance of big siblings to facilitate
their little sisters’ difficulties.
III. Preliminary Research
The action research starts with a question as to “How does the role of big siblings
affect students’ confidence in GEP class?”, and then followed by “What kinds of
strategies are helpful for students’ confidence?” First, we discerned that the students
generally have low confidence compared to their scores of English proficiency tests
from the observation in the first three classes and the preliminary survey at week 2.
The concern led us to decide to explore why they feel unconfident about their output
of target language compared to their overall good test scores and if the big siblings’
role could be efficient for improving students’ confidence.
Interview and Survey Big Siblings
To answer our research question, we interviewed the big siblings by asking their
observation on the students’ confidence and found that their ideas about students’
confidence were similar to our assumption. We also requested big siblings to answer
the questions through a survey paper (appendix 2) including two different parts: the
big siblings’ opinion about their students’ confidence and strategies they are using to
boost up their students’ confidence. The result (Table 1) shows that at least half of
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the students have relatively high confidence in English except three students who
seemingly struggle to produce English.
Table 1. The Big siblings’ opinion about students’ confidence
Degree
Poor---1------2------3------4------5------6------7------8------9------10---Good
Students Numbers
2
0
3
3
3
3
2
1
Furthermore, the big siblings are found to being using very diverse strategies
(appendix 4) to promote little sisters’ confidence. Based on their answers, we try to
categorize them into four positive reinforcements: verbal praise, positive physical
reaction, scaffolding, and affective strategies (appendix 5). One of the most common
strategies that big siblings are utilizing in current GEP class is the verbal
reinforcement such as short and simple verbal complements or praising specific
achievement. They are usually praising students’ work by saying “Good job!”, or
“Excellent!” The strong positive agreement is also one of their methods when they
provide a good cue or suggestion such as “I love your idea.”, and “That is a very
good sentence.” Moreover, group leaders try to praise a lot when the students make
an attempt to actively join the activities or share their ideas in the collaborative
activities. Some of them show physical reactions such as showing genuine pleasure,
forming a thumb up or patting on their students’ back in a positive way. Big siblings
are found to provide specific directions by asking question, prompting, showing
specific steps and repeating directions of the given activity, all of which are
categorized in ‘scaffolding’.
Second Survey
The little sisters were required to evaluate their own confidence in English after the
midterm in the Week 8 of the semester. They were supposed to choose one of the
scales from one to ten, which indicate their confidence from low to high on a
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continuum (appendix 3). Comparing the preliminary survey in the beginning of the
semester; it shows that students’ confidence has been comparatively improved even
in a short period.
Figure 1. Comparison between the preliminary survey and the second survey
Students' Confidence on English
Number of Students
10
8
6
First Survey
4
2
0
Second Survey
1~2
3~4
5~6
7~8
9~10
Degree of Confidence
Based on the findings mentioned above, we decided to provide the students with the
positive reinforcements.(Appendix 6). Bloom (1976) claims that positive reinforcement
is more effective when congratulatory words and actions are varied and intermittent.
Thus, we suggested to the big siblings to utilized them helping students to raise their
confidence. The positive reinforcement was categorized into four different sections:
verbal praise, physical recommended the big siblings to utilize the listed strategies to
help the students to raise their confidence. First, as for the verbal praise. Harmer
(2007) suggests that praising students is one of the pivotal elements to encourage
learners. Additionally, Petty (2004) suggests giving praise not only learners’
outstanding works but also small achievements in order to reinforce them. Thus,
providing verbal praises may be able to amplify learners’ confidence. The second
section of the treatment is “Physical Reaction”. One of the important reasons of
nonverbal behaviors such as eye contact, facial expression and gestures, is to
reinforce students’ learning. Moreover, nonverbal reaction could increase the degree
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of the perceived psychological closeness between teacher and student. According to
Tyson and Wall (1983) the nonverbal positive reinforcement is beneficial to the
learners rather than some spoken words, which means transmitting supportive non
verbal signals might be able to enable the students to lower their anxiety on their
performance and motivate them to learn. Therefore, positive nonverbal reinforcement
may be one of the efficient tools to improve students’ confidence. Third, according to
Harmer (2007), scaffolding is a supportive framework for the construction of
knowledge. Thus, we are expecting the scaffolding to play the roles of boosting
students’ self confidence in class: especially giving prompts might enable learners to
promote their confidence. Lastly, as one of the strategies the big siblings are required
to utilize is “Affective Strategies”, or sharing emotions. Krashen (1985) claimed that the
affective filter is one of the most important factors that influence second language
acquisition. If the mental block that prevents acquirers from fully utilizing the
comprehensible input they receive for language acquisition is up, the learners cannot
acquire the target language even if the input is fully comprehensible. The causes of
the high affective filter are seemingly anxiety, lack of confidence and motivation. Thus,
we encouraged big siblings to help the students to share their difficulties and anxiety
about learning English by expressing their feelings to lower students’ affective filter.
Third Survey
For the next step, we conducted the third survey about their confidence to compare
the effectiveness of the given categories of reinforcements to help their confidence
and interviewed the big siblings about their roles for student’s confidence in the
same way as the second survey. (Appendix 7) Compared to the results of the first or
second survey, it is evident that more students showed improvement of selfconfidence. Fifteen out of twenty three students marked at the numbers more than
six, as shown in Figure 2. As shown in Table 2, fifteen out of twenty three students
marked above six on the continuum, which seemingly can be indicated as positive
evidence of self confidence. Four out of twenty three students evaluated their selfconfidence as being five, which can be still interpreted to be promising, while four
students showed comparatively low confidence. Given that Korean students are likely
to be prudent when they express their self confidence, even the students who chose
low indicators may possibly have more confidence in their actual performance.
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Table 3 Students’ Opinion on their English Confidence
Degree
Poor---1------2------3------4------5------6------7------8------9------10---Good
Students Numbers
1
3
4
5
8
1
1
The second question which we asked to students was to find out which strategies
worked well for boost students’ self confidence. The majority of the students,
eighteen out of twenty three students responded that prompts, elicitation, and
reminding of their homework were effective. Two of them answered that they felt
more confident when they got compliments such as ‘Good job!’, ‘Excellent!’, and
‘What a great idea!’. Also a student expressed sharing feelings to understand the
difficulties of studying English worked well for her self confidence.
Figure 2. Students’ Opinion on their English Confidence
10
Num berofStudents
8
6
First Survey
4
Second Survey
2
0
Third Survey
1~2
3~4
5~6
7~8
Degree of Confidence
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Ⅳ. Discussion and Implications
The findings of this action research shows that the strategic scaffoldings – verbal
praise, physical positive reaction, giving prompts, and affective strategies - by the big
siblings who are more knowledgeable and experienced are very useful and efficient
ways to reinforce students’ self confidence and the most efficient way to facilitate
students’ confident performance was prompting, elicitation and reminding them of
reading assignments. As the findings of this action research indicate, students can get
help from more knowledgeable and experienced people for their confident
performance and one of the most effective ways to give more self-confidence is
through giving prompts. Therefore teachers in the class can try more prompting and
elicitations such as giving examples, giving clues and cues, and reminding them of
what they learned before in order to increase their self-confidence.
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Reference
Atsuta, H. (2003). Improving the motivation of unsuccessful learners in the Japanese
high
school EFL context. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 476 750.
Brown, H.D (2001). Teaching by principles. New York: Pearson Education,
Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. New York: Pearson
Education.
Johnson, M. (2004). A Philosophy of second language acquisition. Yale University.
Krashen, S. D. (1985). The input hypothesis. London: Longman.
Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. IRAL 10(2): pp. 209-31.
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Appendix 1
Survey5. Have you ever taken any standardized exams? Indicate which one(s) and the
approximate score received.
Survey15. I think I am good at English (1=strongly agree, 5=strongly disagree)
Degree
Good---1---------------2---------------3---------------4---------------5---Poor
Students Numbers … 0………………2 ………………9 ………………7………………9
Survey19. Do you have any concerns about this class? Write about it.
S1. I am afraid that I might be not helpful to my group members.
S2. I want to cry every Thursday due to this class. (I have a lot of stress about this
class.)
S3. I don’t like presentation.
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Appendix 2
The Survey Paper for Teachers
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Appendix 3
The Survey Paper for Students
Result of Students’ Opinion on their English Confidence
Degree Poor---1------2------3------4------5------6------7------8------9------10---Good
Students Numbers
1 1……1…… 4 …… 2…… 7…… 2 …… 2…………… 2…… 1
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Appendix 4
The Result of Teachers Strategy
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Complements
pair based on their level
Positive feedback
Wait for the moment when they want to talk, urge them to write
Ex) excellent, good job, what do you think of …? Then what happened?
It’s your turn. Would you try?
Encourage students to make their contributions
Praise the contributions. Give models for Ss to use. Give prompts
Ex) This is great. We can use this. What do you think? Why don’t you
write some ideas on this paper? Then what happened? We have to use
transitional words such as ”After that..”
Positive feedback
Let them help each other
Ex) You did a great job. Ask them to try to think and work together
before T does things for them
Positive feedback, giving proper vocab. Let them speak in English with
interesting topics
Ex) on, I like your paragraph, good job, So, did you mean…?
Positive verbal feedback. Patting their back. Giving thumbs-up. Praise
their work and agree on their ideas.
Ex) Good job. What do think about this? I like your ideas. That is a
good sentence.
Facilitate the tasks by asking questions, giving prompts, reminding
previous lesson or assignments and providing further input. Positive
verbal feedback, Talking about students’ feeling about class activities,
Let them try to interact within peers or with the teacher Ex) What do
we have to do? What’s next? Why is it ~? Do you remember about last
class (assignments)? Good job! Excellent, Why don’t you ask each
other?..
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Appendix 5
The Suggesting Strategy Category
Category
Verbal Praise
Contents and Examples
-
To specify the particular of an accomplishment, so students
know exactly what was performed well
-
Physical Reaction
Scaffolding
(Giving Prompts)
To show genuine pleasure and concern
-
“Good job”, “Excellent”, “ What a great idea”
-
- To show genuine pleasure and concern
-
- Patting their back, Giving thumbs-up
-Then what happened? It’s your turn. Would you try?
So, did
Do you mean…, Giving proper vocabulary asking questions,
Giving prompts, Reminding them of previous learning or
assignments, Providing further input
Reform
– Reformulations
– Gentle corrections
Affective Strategies
to enco--To encourage students’ elaborate their feelings when they
(Sharing Emotions)
express their low confidence verbally within the group – That’s okay,
try again. That’s very close. Give it a try again. That’s also possible, I
guess. Don’t worry about the mistakes. Nobody can be perfect. I
understand how you feel.
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Appendix 6
What kind of strategy can boost Students’ Confidence most in GEP II Class?
1. Categories of feedback that big siblings are using now
Based on the results from the survey, we could find out most of big siblings are now using positive
feedback to boost the confidence of their little sisters. We tried to assign each feedback into in three
different categories like the table below.
Categories
Compliments
Physical Reaction
Prompt
Feedback Being Used
Give Positive feedback, Praise their work Agree on their ideas, such as ‘I like your
paragraph’, ‘Good job!’ ‘You did a great job!’
Patting their back, Giving thumbs-up
Then what happened? It’s your turn. Would you try?
So, did you mean… giving proper vocab asking questions, giving prompts,
reminding them of previous learning or assignments and providing further input
2. Treatment
The following are what you are going to use to boost students’ confidence as remedies related to
students’ confidence:
1) to use effective praise,
2) to show positive feedback through physical reactions such as ‘thumps up’ or ‘give a big smile’.
3) to prompt to facilitate students’ work
4) to encourage students’ elaborate their feelings when they express their low confidence verbally.
* Effective praise verses Ineffective praise
Effective Praise
- shows genuine pleasure and concern
- shows verbal and nonverbal variety
- specifies the particular of an accomplishment, so
students know exactly what was performed well
- is offered in recognition of noteworthy effort on
difficult tasks
- attributes success to effort, implying that similar
success can be expected in the future
- fosters intrinsic motivation to continue to pursue
goals
- is delivered without disrupting the
communicative flow of ongoing interaction
Ineffective Praise
- is impersonal, mechanical, and robotic
- shows bland uniformity
- is restricted to global comments, so students are
not sure what was performed well
- is offered equally strongly for easy and difficult
tasks
- attributes success to ability, luck, or other
external factors
- fosters extrinsic motivation to perform only to
receive more praise
- disrupts the communicative flow of ongoing
interaction
Adapted from Brophy(1981) cited in Brown
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Appendix 7.
1. 첫 번째 GEP 수업과 비교하였을 때 전반적인 영어 실력에 대한 자신감의 정도를 써주
세요.
Degree
Poor---1------2------3------4------5------6------7------8------9------10---Good
2. Big Sibling의 역할이 여러분들의 영어실력에 대한 자신감을 높이는데 도움이 되었다
고 생각하나요?
1) 예 (
)
2) 아니오
3. Bing Sibling들의 어떤 역할이 영어에 대한 자신감을 키우는데 효과적이었는지 하나만
고르시오.
1) 구두로 칭찬하였을 때. (예를 들어 ‘Good job!’, ‘Excellent’, ‘What a great idea!’ 등의
표현을 말하였을 때)
2) 제스처로 격려하였을 때.(예를 들어 ‘어깨를 두드리거나’, 혹은 ‘ -
3) 구체적인 도움이나 힌트를 주었을 때
(예를 들어, 가. 문장의 일부분을 제시 해주었을 때
나. 예를 들어 주었을 때
다. 배운 내용(혹은 숙제)를 상기 시켜 주었을 때
4) 영어공부의 어려움을 심적으로 이해해 주었을 때
5) 그 이외
(
)
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Epilogue
Sookmyung Tesol MA course for two and a half years is just about to finish. It has
been a refreshing and unforgettable journey for me. Sometimes I struggled and
sometimes I was tired, but it was exciting and fascinating. What I have learned the
most from this course is how to manage my time among all the responsibilities
around me and how to be a reflective and organized teacher. I appreciate the
professors and classmates I met along this journey. They were all my teachers, friends,
and inspirers. I would like to keep being a reflective and challenging teacher all the
way through my teaching and my life just like I learned here in Sookmyung Tesol MA
course.
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