Nguyễn Thị Hồng Liên
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS LEARNT FROM THE PRACTICUM
Along with the teaching techniques, there are essential skills that I learned and improved through my participation in the Practicum.
To begin with, my analytical skills were improved during the time I took part in the workshop and the microteaching. During microteaching, the assessment skill allowed me to analyze the strong points and weaknesses of my team members when they taught and gave comments on their performances. From the observation of peer teaching, I learned from my teammates how to manage and interact with students in a big class. Also, my confidence in teaching was enhanced since I was exposed to teaching a big class of non-major English students, which was a new challenge for me. More than that, I also applied my analytical skills to analyze the content of the research paper presented in the workshop. Thanks to the knowledge I acquired in the previous courses, I could have some critical comments based on the way the researchers introduced, and solved the problems. When comparing my research and my performance in microteaching with other fellows, I can figure out my weaknesses and learn how to sharpen my skills in doing research and teaching.
When it comes to planning skills, I thought that I needed to practice more in planning lessons and organizing activities with other team members effectively. More importantly, I learned that spending time to analyze and understand the idea of the lesson before teaching contributes to the success of a lesson. One more thing I improved when planning the lesson plan and activities for the workshop was time management skills. When participating in assigning duties for members in my groups, I was aware of the strengths of each member to distribute suitable tasks for them to do.
Regarding communication skills, the most useful thing I had from the practicum was that I could form a stronger relationship with other classmates with whom I had not had a chance to work. Communication brought people closer and from that I could receive helpful advice for my career path as my fellows are working in different teaching contexts and their sharing not only expanded my knowledge but also gave me practical skills to deal with and prepare for different difficult situations in teaching. Another essential to make was that my communication with students was improved since I could give brief and easy explanations to students as well as locate the purpose of my instructions in order to save time and help low-level students locate the lesson objectives easily.
Given my cultural competence skills, I learned the way to understand and respect the differences I was exposed to in a new teaching setting. When teaching in a new context, I understood that a teacher should be flexible to have effective teaching techniques to adapt to a new environment. Also, understanding the mission of education, the targets, and the core values of the educational institution that I will teach allows me to figure out the purpose of the teaching program and design more efficient lesson plans. From that, I can adjust their mindset in order to adapt to the new teaching context. I also withdrew a lesson that as long as I showed my sympathy and sincerity, I could gain learners’ understanding and have their support.
Last but not least, one of the important skills I improved was the leading skill. Although I am among the youngest members of my team, I always showed respect to other members and proposed ideas when it was necessary. I also respected ideas, received constructive comments to revise my work, and got on well with everyone to prepare for each activity during the microteaching and the workshop. Besides, I also participated in distributing duties among people and reminding my teammates about the progress of the group project. Furthermore, my social responsibility was emphasized when I met the deadlines and contributed to the team meetings to help people prepare our lesson in the last minutes.
Thanks to my participation in the Practicum, I developed many crucial skills, which helped me narrow down the gap between an inexperienced teacher and a professional one. Becoming a professional teacher is always the biggest target that I want to achieve. Therefore, with the skills and experiences I accumulated from the Practicum, I have confidence that I can achieve my biggest target with the new inspiration I got from this journey.
CHANGES IN BEHAVIOUR
The practicum Program left one of the most unforgettable impressions on me during the time I studied the Mater in TESOL program. This experience gave me a chance to widen my knowledge, improve my teaching and other soft skills, and broaden my relationships.
To begin with, my teaching skills and my knowledge in doing research were improved and inspired through the first two days of the practicum. Specifically, when I arrived at Nha Trang University (NTU), I did not expect too much from what I could learn from the workshop. However, I changed my mind when listening to the presentations and I was hooked on some interesting ideas proposed by teachers at NTU and my colleagues. In particular, the topic “Englishes” triggered my curiosity since I and my classmates had the same discussion about this topic but in a different aspect, which encouraged me to learn about this topic. After each presentation, I was surprised by questions from the audience, which gave me more experience in improving my critical thinking to analyze and give comments for research articles.
After the workshop, I could significantly improve my teaching skills by receiving helpful comments from supervisors thanks to the microteaching activity. To be specific, I could give simpler instructions and flexibly use code-switching to help low-level students follow my instructions. I felt so lucky when I received suggestions from Ms. Nga- our supervisor at NTU since it was the first time I taught non-major English students. From that, I deeply understood that to become a good teacher, I must prepare and get to know the students well to adapt to different teaching settings. Another vital thing I learned from microteaching came from my fellow teachers who were very excellent and confident. By observing their performance, I also improved my assessment skills to analyze the strengths and shortcomings of my teammates to sharpen my skills. I was impressed by their professional styles and more importantly, I learned from other teachers the way to engage students in the lesson and interact with them effectively. Another important point to mention was that I improved my time management and teamwork skills when teaching in a group. However, one of the regretful weaknesses I had was my teaching style which was not as natural as other teachers. From that, I withdrew a lesson that along with good proficiency skills, my facial expressions and body language need to be aware of when teaching to maintain a professional teaching style. Furthermore, I need to have clear objectives for each activity and focus on communicative purposes when designing activities to teach.
Besides academic knowledge and teaching skills, another valuable benefit I reaped from the practicum was new relationships. I understood that connecting with colleagues is as important as improving teaching skills, which facilitates me in the journey to become a professional teacher. During the last two days of the trip, I met and talked to many new friends to listen and share stories about teaching together. The practical experiences I received from other teachers were extremely important to my future development since we teach in different settings and learning from each other is essential. Furthermore, when working with other teachers, I was pleased that I had a positive attitude to receive constructive comments from my group members when I designed the lesson plan or distributed duties to complete our group project. Also, it was the first time I offered help to my teammates since I was among the youngest members who were too shy to speak up my voice. Working together was crucial since I could connect and learn from experienced teachers, which in turn, expanded my networking with people I have never worked with. Teamwork made me realize that it was not a shame when I asked my colleagues for their advice. When reflecting on the memories I had with other fellows, I realized that I needed to connect with more people to learn and share new knowledge with more people. More importantly, “Sharing is caring” has become one of my teaching philosophies that urges me to be willing to learn and share more knowledge with other teachers.
In conclusion, the practicum not only gave me a chance to apply what I have learned in practice but also helped me broaden my knowledge and valuable relationships. It was the first time I was exposed to a new teaching context, interacted with new friends, and had a relaxing time with my classmates. The valuable memories I got from the practicum are my motivation and inspiration for me to develop my skills and knowledge to have more breakthroughs in my future career.
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