Igor Gizhko

Donetsk National University of Economics and Trade

What Works in the EFL Classroom ?

Teachers are known for asking a lot of questions. One of the questions we can ask ourselves is, “Did my students benefit from what happened in class today ?”. We usually carry out this daily evaluation of the effectiveness of our teaching privately. And most of us have little time or energy in active reflection. Many of us are busy with a heavy teaching load, a crowded curriculum, and the pressure of exams. This problem is compounded if we work in an environment where sharing insights with colleagues is not encouraged.

Reflection is an effective way of fine-tuning our evaluative skills to the point that we feel confident in our own ability to define what “works” in our classrooms.

To ensure that our reasoning is robust and not just a rehashing of our own personal concerns, we can ask ourselves the following guiding questions:

· Who am I as a teacher ?

· Who are my students ?

· What do I know about my teaching context ?

· What do I know about the subject matter content that I teach ?

· Why do I teach the way that I do ?

· Who is my professional community ?

· What sort of change do I see as fit for my own teaching ?

As teachers we need to look closely at all of the teaching and learning experiences we have had. Which of these experiences has had the strongest impact on how we teach today ? Many teachers involve their students in the evaluative process. Students can give us helpful feedback on their perceptions of different aspects of our teaching. Some teachers obtain this information by distributing evaluation forms to students at the end of the course, but student feedback on a particular aspect of a course can be gathered whenever we feel the need for more formal feedback. Students can also help us determine which language learning methods are most effective for them, what motivates them to study English as a Foreign Language, which learning styles they use to process language input, and the strategies they use in class and at home to promote their own learning.

Different mechanisms and procedures can judge the quality of teaching and learning in appropriate ways. Self and peer assessment help to develop the ability of the learner, not only to learn, but to test and evaluate the results of such learning.

Learning Contracts. These contracts are negotiated between the learner and the teacher or between peer learners to specify the outcomes in terms of learning that student is aiming for. Contracts (or learning agreements) specify the resources a student needs in order to learn, as well as what they will do to learn. Self-assessment is obviously a crucial element in the judging of the success of the work done.

Portfolios. Portfolios can be a useful way of collecting evidence of learning to meet a learning contract. They are often a collection of materials and entries of diverse nature gathered over the course and put together in some structured way to provide evidence of learning and development.

Profiles. A profile specifies what has been learnt on a course. It can be a simple list of topics covered or a fuller description of learning outcomes.

Journals. Journals or diaries capture the process of learning and the stages in a learner’s development over the time of the programme or course. They can be valuable as evidence to show learning and development at the end of the programme. A journal could form part of a portfolio.

Statements of relevance. These are written comments by the student on the relationship between input by the course teachers and their own learning with its practical application. They are reflective documents that draw out how the learner has made links between the general content and his or her own particular context.

The imperative for higher education is to facilitate the development of students’ ability to learn about the process of learning itself so that they become competent to manage and fulfill their future learning needs.

Student feedback is an important resource for teachers in reflecting on their own teaching practice. While some teachers may use student feedback to understand how students feel about an activity they have introduced in a lesson, others may be curious to know if a teaching strategy they have used in a classroom actually helps to cope with difficult situations. Whatever the focuses and objectives teachers have, it is important that teachers evaluate their own teaching practice with reference to feedback from students.

The new communications technology is making a difference as well. Academics now talk to each other daily from other ends of the globe, research findings and publications are more likely to be published first on the Web and only later in printed journals. These changes in how academics work are now beginning to affect teaching.

To know exactly what works or what can work in the EFL classroom, we need to look at the past, present, and future of every component of our work in the classroom. We need to evaluate new research and methods in terms of whether or not they would “work” with our students. In addition, it includes making conscious decisions as to the most effective way to reinforce the positive and respond to the negative elements of classroom interaction.