Suriani Bt.Md.

Daud 810705035540 Group C TASK A: Demonstration of Activity From the methods listed, I have chosen direct method for my lesson. During the 1990s, the European Direct method or direct method was widely taught and used in EFL and ESL classes. The method assigned because teachers in primary school often use this method in teaching listening and speaking in ELT classrooms. From this, I can reflect on the effectiveness and weakness of this popular method in school. I had planned my 30 minutes lesson that uses direct method. The lesson was carried out at my school, Sekolah Kebangsaan Temerloh Jaya, in Temerloh, Pahang. The target group is Year One Tekun. The level of proficiency is intermediate. This school is in the urban area since it is just 2 kilometres from Temerloh town. The theme for the lesson is World of Knowledge. The topic taught was parts of the body. The lesson focused on the listening and speaking. The objectives of the lesson are pupils should be able to identify and name different parts of the body. The moral values of the lesson are self- confident and determined. The critical and creative thinking skills which have been implemented in the lesson are sequencing and analyzing. I used laptop, projector, picture cards and worksheets as the teaching and learning aids. In the set induction, I played a video song (Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes). Students were asked to sing the song together based on the lyrics provided. For the introduction, I played a video that shows different body parts. Students say out after the teacher in naming the body parts played. Then the lesson continued by using picture cards. I asked the students to name different parts of the body one by one. Students answered by say out and spell the parts of the body. If the student answered incorrect, I asked another student to correct it. I have chosen the students randomly to take turns in answering questions. I pasted the picture cards on the board after the students named it. Then I write down the name of the body parts on the board beside the pictures. The process continues until they name and spell all the different parts of the body. After that, I asked the students to show the part of the body that I mentioned. Again, I picked the students randomly in answering the questions. Student answered by showing his or her part of body that I have mentioned before. I asked the whole class whether the answer is correct or incorrect. If I found out the answer incorrect, I asked another student to answer it. If that student made mistakes again, I myself mentioned the correct answer. 1

Suriani Bt.Md.Daud 810705035540 Group C Then, I distributed worksheets to the students. I explained and demonstrated on how to cut and paste the parts of the body. Students listened to my instruction and they cut and pasted the parts of the body. They pasted the parts of the body on the blank face and exactly on the words. In this stage students have to identify the correct name of the parts of the body and the matching pictures that described it. I had enclosed the sample worksheet in Appendix 1. The lesson is mostly in questioning and answering questions by me and the students. The mistakes made are immediately corrected by the students and me, as the teacher. I and the students used one target language that is English Language. From my opinion, that is all it takes to implement the direct method in just 30 minutes lesson.

Suriani Bt.Md.Daud 810705035540 Group C

TASK B: WRITTEN REFLECTION

Reflecting upon my teaching always provides me many dimensions of learning. It helps me to improve and overcome my weaknesses. When I entered the field of teaching, I was an amateur. I had many questions in mind: will the students accept me? Am I really creative enough to bring about changes in teaching profession? For a couple of months, I was in denialI did not accept criticism, and thought myself as a best teacher! But I wasnt. I learnt gradually that without reflecting on teaching practices, it wouldnt have been possible to improve. As time passed, I started reflecting upon my teaching. This was actually a transformation process and taught me how to be a reflective teacher. During eight years of teaching English, I came across many challenges. I accepted these and theyve served as a real evaluation tool for analyzing my teaching growth. The reflection takes place after each class or lesson. As a good English teacher, you must take down notes about what happened. Sometimes we forgot the important things that happened! Yet, modern technologies, such as video cameras and smart phones, make video recordings of English language lesson an accessible, affordable option. As 21st century English teachers, we can deploy some practical tools in our ESL classroom. Videotaping English lesson certainly helps here. This is what I have done, videotaping my lesson, look back and reflect on the method that I have chosen. From the lesson, it is proven that direct method makes the learning of English interesting and lively by establishing direct bond between a word and its meaning. Students can see straight forward the meaning of the word by looking at the visual aids that I had displayed. Due to application of the direct method, students are able to understand what they learned. Psychologically, it is a sound method as it proceeds from the concrete to the abstract. This method can be usefully employed from the lowest to the highest class. Through this method, fluency of speech, good pronunciation and power of expression are properly developed. The teacher can directly correct the mistakes the students make like I did in the video. The effectiveness of direct method is evident. This is why the program called DISTAR or Direct Instruction System for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading was implemented by the US government for nearly three decades. The teacher has control of the timing of the lesson and students are physically easy to monitor by the teacher.

Suriani Bt.Md.Daud 810705035540 Group C

The direct method teaches the second language in the same way as students learn their mother tongue. Students are not allowed to use their mother tongue like I did in the lesson. I can see the students learn faster as the mother tongue is never used. In fact, it can be said that it is a natural method where the language is taught through demonstration and context. Students are encouraged to think in English. Therefore, they are more likely to acquire fluency in speech since they concentrate in expressing themselves through English rather than understanding English. I consider direct teaching a powerful teaching strategy that needs good preparation. Student interest and participation were always very high during my lesson. One more advantage is that the direct method believes that one way to learn a language is to use it. This is what I had applied in my lesson. I found out that it is proven through the lesson. From my opinion, direct method applied the most on Behaviourism learning theory. This can be seen that language learning using this method is more on habit formation. Mistakes made by students are bad and should be avoided, as a teacher I make corrections immediately after every mistakes made. Students in this method only react in the appropriate behavior only. Another principles of behaviourism that can be seen in this method is language skills are learned more effectively when they are presented orally first, then it continues in the written form. The meanings of words can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context such as in direct method. Although direct method is one of the most widely used teaching strategies, it has been criticized as ineffective and scorned as the teaching method chosen by teachers who are not prepared. Even though there are many advantages in direct method, this method has many weaknesses. From my observation, this method is a real time-consuming if the teacher and students dont understand each other. It occurs when the teacher face the weak students. The structure of direct method can be rigid enough to hinder the creativity of the teacher. There is very little room to improvise because this method follows a step-by-step procedure. The procedure usually starts with an introduction, followed by the rationale for the instruction, then by the instruction itself. The procedure ends with a summary and then followed by an assessment. There are many abstract words which cannot be interpreted directly in English and much time and energy are wasted in making attempts for the purpose. This can be seen in my lesson where in certain parts the students cannot understand what I have said. This method is based on the principles that auditory appeal is stronger that visual but there are children who learn more with visual than with their oral- aural sense like ears and 4

Suriani Bt.Md.Daud 810705035540 Group C tongue. This method doesnt cater to the students differences in learning styles. This can be seen during the lesson when some of the students show bored faces. In larger classes, this method is not properly applied and teaching in this method does not suit or satisfy the needs of individual students in large classes. Direct method, if utilized by unprepared teachers, can be disastrous. For direct teaching or instruction to be effective, the teacher must have a mastery of the subject matter, must prepare a well-organized content, and must have excellent communication skills. Without these traits, a teacher could not effectively carry out direct teaching. The direct method rejects use of printed word, but this objection is illogical since second language learner has already mastered his reading skills. In spite of its achievements, the direct method fell short from fulfilling the needs of educational systems. One of its major shortcomings is that it was hard for public schools to integrate it. As Brown (1994:56) points out that the direct method did not take well in public education where the constraints of budget, classroom size, time, and teacher background made such a method difficult to use. After a short popularity in the beginning of the 20th century, it soon began to lose its appeal because of these constraints. Although this method is still in use, it has largely been replaced by other, newer approaches and methods such as the Multiple Intelligences and the Discovery method, among a few others. The direct method however, has some distinctive features and advantages which make it useful even today despite the advent of newer, more popular English language learning methods and approaches. Overall, my lesson was quite good in some parts. I managed to organize my lesson well where the activities were done in a logical order. I only saw some students participations in the activities. It is not so good. This matter must be change in my lesson next time. I must think of the activities that involve most of my students. By using direct method, the lesson is not suitable for all students which have different language proficiency. From the video, I saw the bored and blurred students who do not focused and understand on what I taught. The objectives of the lesson were achieved but I just managed to conduct two activities only. My lesson also applied the audiolingual method of language teaching, which can be seen through repetition and drills. Due to the time constrain, I think a 30 minutes lesson is not enough to cater the young students needs. I did motivate the students in answering my questions by giving praises.

Suriani Bt.Md.Daud 810705035540 Group C I would like to use another method next time. I dont think direct method is suitable to the young student who is quite active and cannot sit back for longer time. I saw that my students like to sing and do actions like what I did in the set induction. I should change my activities since it cannot cater all of my students. I can group them and do some language game which is more interesting and captivating. As a conclusion, it is a request to all the teachers to reflect back on their teaching practices as well, in order to bring change in the lives of their students, while improving themselves too. For me, teaching is learning come full circle. Live life for who you truly are and the potential person you can become. Every life you touch will be affected by who you choose to be.