Journal entry 4

Upon reflection I feel everything that was taught was relevant and always reused in following lessons. There seemed to be a point to it all, and not just being taught it for the sake of filling lesson time which I have experienced previously. One of the more useful aspects for me to take away was seeing the benefits of going through the homework that was set and it being corrected, either via email/eBridge or in the lesson itself. As a learner I feel this is a very important part of learning, as I find in other languages I do homework on a weekly basis, but as it is never corrected, I sometimes struggle knowing if I am correct or not, and find other learners never do the homework set as they know it will never be checked. This course has shown me that there are other ways for a teacher to mark homework without taking up valuable class time which can be more beneficial for the whole class, for example having it submitted and marked before the next class which then can be corrected and the teacher can spend part of the next class going over problem areas and common mistakes if need be.

The lessons were varied which made them interesting (and to all students it seems, not just me) and the teacher was always open to questions. All handouts were clear and well organised, i.e., in the order they were being used.  The lesson in which STT and TTT were analysed showed me the importance of having a balance of both when possible and getting all the students to partake when necessary.

Overall there are definitely certain teaching methods that I have seen over the 4 sessions that I hope to remember and use when I do become a teacher. From the varied lessons, to getting the students to participate when possible and in different ways e.g., not always with the same partner or group (although I am aware that there will be occasions that this will not be appropriate), to the usefulness of handouts if presented well, to making sure everyone is clear on the aims and outcomes of the class to the different ways to mark homework.  

What struck me the most was the importance of refreshing what the students have previously learnt before moving onto the next stage. As a learner I have seen both sides – not recapping (normal in my languages) and now recapping and I believe it is essential to recap as if the students have not taken in nor understood what they were meant to, they will not be able to advance to their full potential. It is also important for the teacher as they will be able to gauge whether the outcomes of the previous lessons have been fulfilled or whether they need to clarify something.  

This learning experience has been completely new to me.  I have not studied a language from ‘scratch’ where I have been unable to use my knowledge of other languages to assist me, since I first started learning languages in a classroom setting - about 26 years ago!

I felt that learning Dutch in this way opened up my eyes to very effective and good ways of teaching a language, and I am not just saying this to ‘please’ the teacher. 

Journal entry 3

What was to be covered during this 3^rd lesson was clearly explained at the start.  It was also good to hear that we would cover the final point – asking each other questions about our likes/dislikes “if there was time - depending how things go.”  This immediately put me at ease and made me feel as though I could ask questions if I needed to, which I don’t always feel I can in my other languages.

                We started by going through the homework from last week and checking we had conjugated the verbs correctly. This was very useful as it made sure we understood the basic present tense and it would have flagged up any issues to the teacher.

                We then started using the handout we were given and went through the answers from the listening homework. Having the script in front of us whilst listening was beneficial as we could follow exactly what was being said and it was helpful to hear the pronunciation with the words in front of us.  Being able to pick the answers out of the dialogue was good as seeing them written down in front of me I was able to find most. We will be able to use the dialogue at home to re-listen and understand it better.

                We then did a round robin asking how the person next to us was and before we did this we had looked at new and different ways to ask/answer the questions.  This was good as it built on what we had done last week.

                The text was then then used to pick out ways of saying things, which helped show is that sometimes there is more than one way to say something in Dutch. It made me realise I could recognise a lot more that I thought when I have it written in front of me.

                Following on from this we started talking about hobbies and the examples in the handout of ways to say you like/love something. We were asked what vocabulary we wanted so that we could get the words we need to complete this week’s homework.

                The lesson concluded with the formation of questions. Using the handout it was explained the 2 different ways to form questions – the yes/no questions and the WH questions and we did the exercise on this in the handout.  

                Overall I thought it was beneficial that all the paper materials that we needed were put into one handout and we were not given several different bits of paper, which can happen. Although it was presented as one handout, it was clearly split into different parts which were followed in order.  I believe that the class was ran building up on what we have learnt in our previous two lessons. Everything that we have been taught has been reused at some point which shows we are being taught ‘relevant’ things.

I think that the different stages and activities were used to break up the lesson into different stages, to keep the students interested and each activity was to put into practice what had just been covered by the teacher. It also made it a mixture of teacher talk time and student talk time. I also think that it was for the teacher to check and see if we understood what had been covered as there would have been no point her moving on if not. I think that it was broken up as lessons can become very boring if they are not varied, especially grammar ones. I think the materials were chosen for our level of Dutch, but a little harder so that we are pushed and so that we can build up out knowledge logically. Now in theory with the materials that have been used we could have a basic conversation with someone in Dutch! 

Journal entry 2

The second Dutch lesson was structured differently to our first, which was bound to be slightly different as we are now coming into class having had some exposure to it.

The lesson started with a recap of what we had covered in the first lesson. We were asked to individually write down the Dutch for 5 phrases. All the class were involved in giving the answers and as a combined effort I think we were able to come up with all the answers! I felt this was a good exercise to do as it refreshed what was previously covered, which disappointingly does not happen often with the languages I study. It was also beneficial to hear the pronunciation again.

We then asked and answered questions in a way that was new to me. Instead of us working in pairs or the teacher going round asking people individually, we went round the class each answering a question that was asked by another student and then asking the person next to us the same question. We did this with a few different questions and in different orders.

                The present tense was also covered which was explained by our teacher, but we did have a practice at conjugating.

I thought the teacher and student talk times were perfectly balanced for this lesson. The student talk time was varied too, from all offering suggestions for the initial exercise, then a round robin question and answer session and then working in groups of 4. I found it thoroughly enjoyable, all activities varied and I got a lot out of this lesson.

Journal entry 1

The lesson aims were clearly explained - to look at the basics: pronunciation, alphabet, numbers and the relationship between sound and spelling. They would then be heard in context in a dialogue, which we would have the transcript for so we could pick things out.

When initially told the aims, I thought that there was a lot to cover in the 50 minute lesson, however as we started my fears subsided. The hand-out given was clearly set out in 3 separate sections and going through each part individually and in order were beneficial, with questions being asked if needed. It was at the right speed for the learners present.

All aims were covered, although it would have been helpful to have access to the dialogue post lesson so we could consolidate. The Teacher’s outcome was completed as all aims were covered, whether those of the learners were is more complicated due to people learning differently and it being hard to measure. 

Before the first lesson I was very apprehensive about learning a new language, with Dutch being different to my others. I only started learning Italian last year, which although hard, I have mainly done so well having my Spanish to help me out when needed. I did not have any confidence prior to my first lesson of Dutch as I had no safety net to help. I was pleasantly surprised that although previously told Dutch was like German, which I last studied 20 years ago, although, some similarity, it was more similar to English, but of course they are all Germanic languages.