Practice Activities – FP007 CM

PRACTICE ACTIVITIES:
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT -
TECHNIQUES AND REFLECTIONS ON PRACTICE

GENERAL INFORMATION:

The practice activities consist on two tasks (four questions) you must answer following the
instructions. Your submission must fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: 4 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if there are any-).
- Font type: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Font size: 11.
- Spacing: 1.5.
- Alignment: Justified.

The activities have to be included in this Word document: keep the activities’
statements/questions and answer below them. In order to make the correction process easier,
please, do not write the answers in bold, so it will then be easier to distinguish between
questions and answers. Remember that the document must still fulfil the rules of presentation
and edition, and follow the rubric for quoting and making bibliographical references as detailed
in the Study Guide.

Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject Evaluation”
document. You must not send it to the teacher’s e-mail.

Do not forget to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the document “Subject
Evaluation”.

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 Practice Activities – FP007 CM

Name and surname(s): Nancy Iveth Hercules Cubias

Group:
Date: 05/28/2019

Practice Activities

Task 1. Reflection exercises.

Read the reflection and answer the questions. Scriviner 2012 presents the following
reflection of Ken Wilson in his blog (2010):

Source: Scrivener, J. (2012). Classroom Management Techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

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Questions 1.1.
How do you feel about the reflective question: “it isn’t a big chunk of your time, is it?”.
What implications does it have for some teacher’s management of classroom time? Do we
consider activities in terms of time consumption or in terms of assumed utility? Justify
your answers with arguments from the materials and the readings.
Timing is an important factor to manage a class, this need to be taken into account in order to
control the teaching process. However, is time under control during each activity? Can be
possible to achieve the aims of every activity according to the time planned previously?
First of all, teachers need to measure time for every task assigned in the class. It is also relevant
to mention that although teachers have planned each activity with a specific time, it is hard to
predict how much minutes it would take since the class may deal with unexpected problems.
Another important factor to consider is; to achieve the aims of the activities. In order to reach
the objectives is important to motive students, Ken Wilson (2010), argues regard why in the
twenty-first century we still have row of seats in classrooms. This means that the layout of the
classroom can be changed to make the class more dynamic and motive students. However, to
make this the teacher has to know exactly what he or she wants because changing the classroom
layout needs inversion of time and managing disciple. In this sense, teachers must handle with
variety of responsibilities at the same time and being specific at the moment to give instructions
to the students. Thus, accomplish the aims of the lesson. Bearing in mind that time and utility of
the activities are complementary. Nevertheless, the most important thing is to reach the
objectives of the subjects.

Questions 1.2.
To what extent does Wilson’s story cater for individualised learning? What advantages
and what drawbacks can you identify with the ‘procedure’ described? (Ur, 1996:236)
Explain your answer.

Ur (1996) defines individualism as a situation where learners are given a measure of freedom to
choose how and what they learn at any particular time.
However, Wilson’s story does not cater for individualised learning since the invited teacher of
the story put the students in four groups of eight and the student who was left over simply
helped him to organize the activity. So, he focused on group works which has some advantages.
For example, it is argued (e.g. Long 1990) that group work provides learners with the

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opportunity to use 'better' language in that by negotiating meaning in groups, learners will use a
greater variety of functions.

The drawbacks I can mention in this case is the fact that the invited teacher had to improvise
regarding to the time, since the activity took more minutes than he had considered and also the
attitude of the assigned teacher who was not convinced about making something new in the
classroom.

Questions 1.3. Considering Ur’s statements in our module, do you think the technique
described could be used with mixed- ability groups? If so, would this always result in more
successful SLA for learners?

According to Penny Ur (1996), mixed-ability is still a factor which needs to be taken into
account in any teaching situation. No two students learn the same in any class, since all the class
groups are heterogeneous as Penny called them. The technique of working in groups is very
helpful since it encourages cooperation and peer teaching which is really useful for those
students who needs for help. Doing this, students will reach good results.

Task 2

Below, we have listed some common assumptions in the field of TEFL. Do you strongly
agree or disagree with any of them? Choose two statements that would make you react in
either direction, explain how they would relate to each other, in the light of the
bibliography of the subject, and try to reflect on why they made you feel strongly in either
approval or disapproval.

 If students translate the meaning of new vocabulary, they will develop the
mistaken idea that there is a one-to-one correspondence between words in English
and in their own language.

Learning new vocabulary is very important for students when they are studying a
second language. Limited vocabulary impedes successful communication Nation
(2011). argues that the acquisition of new vocabulary is essential for successful second
language use because without an extensive vocabulary, we will not be able to use the
structures and functions we may have learned for comprehensible communication.

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I am strongly agreed with the statement above, since English language translate is not
literal from another language. That is why students need to search the meaning of new
vocabulary using other strategies in order to avoid making this mistake.

 If you give instructions for activities in the mother tongue, you deprive students of
an important opportunity to be exposed to natural L2 use.

I am strongly agreed with this statement, since according to Stephen Krashen (1988),
"Acquisition of a second language requires meaningful interaction in the target
language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form
of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding." In this
sense it is very important that teachers give instructions for activities in the language
students are learning in order to help them their listening and comprehension skills.

 As teachers we are doomed to repeat teaching behaviour that we ‘learnt’ through our
‘apprenticeship of observation’.

 If students translate the meaning of new vocabulary, they will develop the mistaken
idea that there is a one-to-one correspondence between words in English and in their
own language.

 If you give instructions for activities in the mother tongue, you deprive students of an
important opportunity to be exposed to natural L2 use.

 Our beliefs as teachers affects our classroom management more than any other
factor in the classroom.

 Teachers could sometimes use mother tongue texts with students, but comprehension
tasks should always require students to produce English.

 There is always a mismatch between a teachers ‘espoused’ theories and his/her real
classroom behaviour.

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References:

Krashen, S. (1988) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning.  Prentice-

Hall International.

Long, M. H. & Porter, P. A. (1985). Group work, interlanguage talk and second language
acquisition. TESOL Quarterly, 19/2, pp. 207-228.

Nation, I. S. P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. Boston, Mass.: Heinle&Heinle

Publishers

Ur, Penny (1996) A Course in Language Teaching – Practice and Theory. Cambridge.

Wilson, K (2010) Ten way to motive the unmotivated. Retrieved from:

https://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/2465/