1. CLASS REFLECTION
The class started out with some exercises for the students also the teacher took the
some to make a review of the numbers and the parts of the body. Instructions were
given in English and the teacher used moves and signals for a better understanding
of the instructions having no necessity to speak in Spanish. After that teacher asked
the students for the date, they answered her in English with the correct day, the
number of the day, also with the year all in L2.
The teacher organized the students and gave them the instructions to make a
dialogue for giving and resaving information about a community service. The teacher
used the Grammar Translation method to give the instructions, first in L1 that in this
case is Spanish and then in L2 that is referred as English. Students seem to not
have a previous knowledge of how to make a dialogue so it was not expected that
they use perfect English for this activity.
Teacher asked for them to look for a classmate to work with for this activity, in order
to do this she gave them 10 minutes to join with a partner. Teacher also took the
chance to make a review of the numbers counting from 1 to 10. Even the teacher
tried to speak all the time in English it was not possible because of the low level of
English that the students had. This made the teacher repeat the instruction over and
over again but in Spanish applying Grammar Translation method again.
The instructions were to make a dialogue with the other classmate about a
community service, like a policeman, a dog seller, a fireman; after that they would be
acting it out in front of the class that dialogue having different roll for each of them.
Students were asked to write the dialogue, and so they did .the Dialogues had a lot
of mistakes but they were acceptable for an A1 level student. Even so they wrote
understandable English. After that they wrote the text again but in Spanish, to
observe the differences between what they wrote and the real meaning they tried to
express.
Students showed a poor speaking level for the activity; even if they are from first
grade they do not seem motivated to learn English. The plan for the class was good
and the Translation Method is really accurate for this kind of activities and classes,
but there is not enough time for develops a better learning of English.