Self-reflection Week 3

How it affects me?

In this week’s tutorial, we learned about CLT which is Communicative language learning. We were given three different articles for us to read regarding CLT. From what I have obtained after reading the three articles, sort of get what CLT really isJ. I found out that CLT is not just only about students’ talking in classroom. It is more to that. CLT actually gave the opportunities for students to give their opinion, train their critical thinking (depending on the task give), and to interact with the teacher and also among peers.

How does it affect my current level of knowledge and use that knowledge to improve myself?

During my high school days, my English teacher used to ask students questions or personal opinion. I hate that…probably because at that time my English was not that good so it demotivates me to participate in the lesson. To think back, it scares me that someday my students will be like that too. What if I really want my class to be student-centered, but my students do not cooperate or participate in the activities? Will I be the only one who is doing the talking in the class? What if I failed to entertain my students? I surely do not want my students to hate English because of me. And I do not want to be labeled as ‘cikgu boring’ at the school. Like it or not, students will label that to one of the teachers in every school in this world. I just hope that it will not be me. It really changed the way I think about student-centered learning. It will not always be 100% successful. Students might not learn the language the way the want it to be. They were forced to give opinions in classroom. They might memories the sentences just for the sake of completing some tasks.

 In every lesson, we have aims, just like a goal we try to achieve. But what if it turned out to be something that we really do not want to. That is why, I think I need to learn on how to control myself, not to panic when I face this kind of problems. It will be corny if I say we cannot pleased everyone so we have to bear with it. Even if it is true, teachers should try to change their teaching style to different students. If I found out that I am the ‘cikgu boring’ in the school, I will be motivated to change the way I teach. To make the activity fun, it is always possible, however, to make the students participate in the activity would be hard. A teacher should know their students first. I am glad that we are currently studying about psychology now so that we know the types of student we will have. The most important thing to establish this student-centered learning is to make the students feel comfortable by interacting with them, meaning that we have to approach them first before we expect them to speak out. Maybe we can start by asking their names and hobby (first day of class) or probably call their names to make them feel appreciated in class. These simple things will make them feel motivated in class.