TAI # 14 Findings about my Teaching Con't

Present findings from this inquiry about your teaching. Ensure qualitative data includes rich descriptions of your teaching and quantitative data is clearly presented.

This post is a continuation of my previous post. Table 3 shows the last few items on writing difficulties again from the perceptions of the learners. They were lower in rating by the learners.

Table 3: The last Items from Learners’ Perceptions
Cognitive and Linguistic
Ideas	Grammar	Vocabulary
- I have difficulty writing closing sentences for my paragraph. - Sometimes I start writing something, then in the end I write something else.  - I have difficulty summarizing my larger argument into a conclusion. - I find it difficult to go from one paragraph to another with smooth, well- connected transitions.	- I have difficulty using articles. - I have difficulty with word order in English sentences . - I have difficulty with punctuation.
My Teaching	My Teaching	My Teaching
Items 1 & 3 are part of the teaching structure which I have done in class, but probably need to do it more often and consistently. It should be an ongoing part of teaching.  Items 2 & 4 are part of critical thinking and structure too. Again I have done some in class, but should be done more consistently.	This shows the importance of teaching grammar - articles as parts of speech, parts of a sentence, and punctuation. I have done some work on these but maybe not enough. I should do more work on these areas.
Psychological and Emotional
Difficulties from learners’ perceptions	My Teaching
- I like to write English essays - I feel my writing assignments are interesting and meaningful.  - I feel comfortable revising my writing in English.	A good degree of positive attitude is reflected from these comments . I need to build on that positive attitude and continue to encourage them to learn writing more effectively.

Table 4 shows a self-observation of my current teaching against the hypotheses that I found helpful from the literature. 

Hypothesis 1  

If I know my learners’ difficulties in writing from their own perspectives and design my instruction to address them as needs, then they will learn more about writing and increase their proficiency.

My Teaching

I perceive this as a form of formative assessment which I do not normally do in my teaching. Normally I start my teaching by giving them all the expectations and tasks of a standard, but I do not seek to know what they find difficult in writing. I only find out their problems or difficulties when they start to write their essays. I then try to help them in a jigsaw way.

In this inquiry I find this formative assessment very helpful to do right at the beginning because it helps the planning and designing of my writing. This is a good change for me to implement in this inquiry.

Hypothesis 2

If I know my learners’ cognitive/linguistic, psychological/emotional, or social/cultural difficulties in writing and address them in my teaching, then they will learn more about writing and increase their proficiency.

My Teaching

I am always aware that my learners have difficulties and learning needs in writing and other language skills, but not in these categories - cognitive/linguistic, psychological/emotional, and social/cultural. I find these categories very helpful because they make me see the importance of incorporating the whole person and their experiences into language learning - thinking, feelings, language, and their L1.

I feel that this a real good change for my teaching, starting in this inquiry. It’s a formative assessment that could be done with my learners right at the beginning of the course, and use that as baseline data to measure up the improvement of the learners later. 

Hypothesis 3

If I target my teaching of writing on particular genre-types required and desired by the academic department at school and use explicit genre-based pedagogy in instruction, then my learners will acquire the related writing skills in those genres and increase their writing proficiency.

My Teaching

The programme for English Language learning that I offer, be it for juniors or seniors, in an unavoidable way, expects us to offer different types of texts or genres for students to write. I am therefore expected to teach some of these genres, which I try and do. What needs to happen to deepen and be more specific in teaching these genres in their different aspects - eg purpose and audience, structure, language features, and vocabulary.

I feel that I do that, as I am expected, but I really need to develop more strategies in teaching these genres for the students’ better understanding.

Hypothesis 4

If I use an explicit scaffolding approach in teaching writing to my learners, then they will have a chance to better understand and acquire specific skills of writing proficiency.

My Teaching

Scaffolding is a teaching strategy that I already knew about and tried to use in my teaching. But I realise I need to adopt a clear model of executing this instructional strategy. 

Explicit modelling - Shared Demonstration - Guided Practice - Independent Practice.

‘I do - We do - You do’ Framework

Hypothesis 5

If I use the Toulmin Model as base for teaching the purpose and structure of argumentative essay, then learners will be able to increase their proficiency in this writing genre.

My Teaching

I knew that teaching an argumentative text type essay will be one genre that I needed to teach my learners as part of the writing standard that I offered my learners. I felt I was not clear on a particular model I needed to focus on in teaching this argumentative type essay.

Toulmin Model:

Claim (assertion to be proved) - grounds (evidence & facts to help support the claim - warrant (assumption that links the grounds to the claim, implied or stated explicitly)

Hypothesis 6

If I use corrective feedback to help learners identify how to improve their writing, then learners will know how to improve and increase their writing proficiency.

My Teaching

I do this a lot in my teaching as I always use it as a strategy to teach students individually using their errors to teach them the right way to write and to use the language features. 

I find this to be an effective strategy which helps the students progress in their writing. This strategy helps the development of critical & clear thinking in my learners.

I should try to navigate around these hypotheses and find models and strategies which can make my teaching more effective for the learning of my learners.